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The debut of Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia of the Carabinieri, a Sicilian, stationed in Florence.
It is just before Christmas and the marshal wants to go South to spend the holiday with his wife and family, but first he must recover from the flu (which has left the Florentine caribinieri short-handed) and also solve a murder. A seemingly respectable retired Englishman, living in a flat on the Via Maggio near the Santa Trinita bridge, was shot in the back during the night. He was well-connected and Scotland Yard has despatched two officers to "assist" the Italians in solving the crime. But it is the marshal, a quiet observer, not an intellectual, who manages to figure out what happened, and why.
In addition to the wonderful atmosphere of Florence, Magdalen Nabb has created a delightful investigator who has been described as "the most Maigret-like of contemporary policemen" by the Times Literary Supplement.
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Praise for Magdalen Nabb: "The best mystery news in ages is that Soho is restoring to the canon Magdalen Nabb and her tremendous crea-tion, Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia of the Italian police in Florence."-Chicago Tribune "First rate. Engrossing, artful, and completely satisfying. Nabb is a fine writer."-Frank Conroy "Magdalen Nabb is so good she's awesome."-The Philadelphia Inquirer "Nabb is formidable."-Houston Post Everyone is so distracted by the phenomenon of a March snowfall in Florence that no one notices two foreign girls being abducted from the piazza at gunpoint in broad daylight. Even Marshal Guarnaccia has trouble piecing together what he has actually seen: tourists in a car holding up a big map, children going to school, a bus, a drug addict on the steps of Santo Spirito church, a single Sardinian bagpiper in a long, black shepherd's cloak. One of the girls, a Norwegian university student, turns up in Pontino, a village in the Chianti hills, where she is hospitalized for a concussion, a leg wound, and possible pneumonia. She says she has been released by the kidnappers so she can make contact. The other kidnap victim, an American girl, is being held for ransom. But the marshal thinks she's lying. Kidnapping has become a local racket. It is up to Marshal Guarnaccia to save the young American and put a stop to a flourishing criminal enterprise. ...
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A young Swiss art student who commutes to a small town near Florence is reported missing. Then her body is found. Was it a sex crime? Guarnaccia suspects a local feud with its roots in World War II.
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"Artfully understated. . . . [An] elegant series."-The New York Times Book Review
"The richest mystery here, however, is Florence itself, whose intricate politics and class structure Nabb parses with precision and wit. . . . Nabb is sweetly droll."-The Washington Post Book World
"[Nabb] writes in graceful, calm prose."-The Associated Press
"Lovely measured language. . . . Offers such pleasures as great local atmosphere and rich characterizations."-Publishers Weekly
"Lean, elegant prose that surpasses the best of Simenon."-Kirkus Reviews
"[A] superb series."-Booklist
"Guarnaccia's Florence is a delightful place to visit."-Mystery Scene
The body of a woman has been found half-submerged in an ornamental fish pond high up in Florence's Boboli Gardens. At first, the woman cannot be identified; only her skull remains. The marshal must use her clothing and a shoe to trace her.
She turns out to be a young Japanese woman apprenticed to one of Florence's legendary custom shoemakers, crotchety old Peruzzi. Could he have killed his protégé? Or did jealousy drive his other apprentice to murder? The neighbors have seen Akiko with a lover-a brilliant young Carabinieri-who has disappeared. Has he fled to avoid arrest?
The marshal must go to Rome to complete his investigation. When he returns to Florence he can identify the killer, but can he bring him to justice?
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" The lore and mystique of male transvestite lifestyles in Florence. . . . The marshal takes the case that no one wants, a situation underscoring the novel's theme of unloved and troubled children."-Publishers Weekly "Among the genre's most appealing cops."-Booklist "Surpasses the best of Simenon."-Kirkus Reviews The marshal must leave his snug world at the Pitti Palace to seek a criminal in the shadowy haunts of prostitutes, pimps, and tricks. No one believes that he can navigate in this milieu, much less identify a killer, but once again he confounds their expectations. ...
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Praise for the Marshal Guarnaccia series: "This elegant series, which began in 1981 with Death of an Englishman . . . is set in Florence, a city that glows in the Tuscan sun. . . . [His] sense of estrangement accounts for Guarnaccia's special perspective on strangers, those 'innocents' among the living and the dead."-The New York Times Book Review "Lean, elegant prose that surpasses the best of Simenon, along with a puckish view of the Florentines from Guarnaccia's Sicilian perspective."-Kirkus Reviews "The richest mystery here, however, is Florence itself, whose intricate politics and class structure Nabb parses with precision and wit."-The Washington Post "Great local atmosphere and rich characterizations."-Publishers Weekly "A superb series. . . . A working-man's Maigret."-Booklist "Crime fiction at its best."-The Sunday Times (London) "Guarnaccia's Florence is a delightful place to visit."-Mystery Scene Summoned by an aged woman to investigate mysterious noises in the vacant flat next to hers, Marshal Guarnaccia discovers a dying Dutch jeweler. The old lady had known him when he was a boy growing up in Florence. Could he have returned to the family home just to commit suicide? Or could the man be the victim of a cunning murderer? Magdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire. She has lived in Florence since 1975 and has written twelve Marshal Guarnaccia mysteries. This is the second in the series. ...
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"A final reminder of why [Nabb] is irreplaceable among English-speaking novelists who write mysteries with Italian locales.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review “Nabb’s books display all the rich prose and quirky characters that Christie was famous for.”—BookPage “The world of crime fiction [is] poorer for the loss of Magdalen Nabb.”—The Boston Phoenix “Charming. . . . Lovely.”—Rocky Mountain News “If you didn’t make it to Florence this summer, don’t despair. . . . There’s a new Marshal Guarnaccia investigation.”—Chicago Tribune “Surpasses the best of Simenon.”—Kirkus Reviews “There is no other series quite like the Guarnaccia stories.”—The Washington Post Book World Daniela is a quiet single mother studying for a doctorate in chemistry. She rarely goes out, so her murder in her bedroom at the family’s new villa seems inexplicable. It is true that her mother, who appears to be an alcoholic; her younger sister, who has had mental problems; and her father, who has made his money running nightclubs and is probably involved in the international sex trade, are not your average home-loving Italian nuclear family, but what can she have done to be singled out for slaughter? And why has the prosecutor asked specifically for Marshal Guarnaccia to head the investigation? This is the fourteenth book in this acclaimed series. Magdalen Nabb, who was born and educated in England, lived and wrote in Florence, where she died on August 18, 2007. ...
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Praise for Magdalen Nabb: "Magdalen Nabb is so good she’s awesome."—Philadelphia Inquirer "First rate. Engrossing, artful and -completely satisfying. Nabb is a fine writer."—Frank Conroy "Elegant of style and elegant of mind."—Publishers Weekly, starred "Nabb is formidable."—Houston Post An elderly woman is found dead in her apartment. The marshal’s search for the villains brings him into confrontation with the past, with Jewish refugees from fascism, and with an English expatriate. Magdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire. She has lived in Florence since 1975. ...
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Praise for the Marshal Guarnaccia Series: “It takes a writer as good as Magdalen Nabb to remind us of how subtle the art of the mystery can be. . . . Nabb has Simenon’s knack.”—The New York Times Book Review “If you didn’t make it to Florence this summer, don’t despair. . . . There’s a new Marshal Guarnaccia investigation.”—Chicago Tribune “Surpasses the best of Simenon.”—Kirkus Reviews “There is no other series quite like the Guarnaccia stories.”—The Washington Post Book World Daniela is a quiet single mother studying for a doctorate in chemistry. She rarely goes out, so her murder in her bedroom at the family’s new villa seems inexplicable. It is true that her mother, who appears to be an alcoholic; her younger sister, who has had mental problems; and her father, who has made his money running nightclubs and is probably involved in the international sex trade, are not your average home-loving Italian nuclear family, but what can she have done to be singled out for slaughter? And why has the prosecutor asked specifically for Marshal Guarnaccia to head the investigation? This is the fourteenth book in this acclaimed series. Magdalen Nabb, who was born and educated in England, lived and wrote in Florence, where she died on August 18, 2007. ...
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Praise for Magdalen Nabb: "Every word should be savored."—Washington Post Book World "The best mystery news in ages is that Soho is restoring to the canon Magdalen Nabb and her tremendous creation, Marshal Guarnaccia of the Italian Police in Florence."—Chicago Tribune "Exquisite."—The New York Times Book Review "Nabb continues to extend conventions of the police procedural to suit her own intriguing vision and purpose."—Philadelphia Inquirer ...
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