The Monster of Florence

Zusatztext Praise for The Monster of Florence "One of Nabb's darkest novels! almost shocking in its disenchanted acknowledgment of human brutality." The New York Times Book Review "The late Magdalen Nabb never wrote a bad book.... She's well worth discovering by a new generation of readers... [ Monster of Florence ] is one of the best of her works and readers can revel in the streets! sounds! smells of Florence." The Globe and Mail It is so good to walk with [Magdalen Nabb] through the animated streets of Florence! with its carabinieri! its ordinary people! its little trattorie and even its noisy tourists. It's all so alive! you can hear the noises! smell the smells! see that morning mist on the fast flowing Arno. Bravissimo! Georges Simenon " Monster is powerful in its indirection and its presentation in a fictional context of the facts of a real and celebrated case.... It's both a very effective crime novel and something more than a crime novel." Glenn Harper! International Noir Fiction "A haunting thriller where past and present collide! where ambition brutalizes those who have most need of compassion and where lies are often more credible than truth." Val McDermid "Nabb's account of the details is freshly horrifying.... The vicious! incestuous suspect is so vivid on the page that the reader feels the need of a shower after each of his many appearances." Donna Leon for the Sunday Times Fans who mourned [Nabb's] death in 2007 will want this mystery. Library Journal "Nabb's death! in 2007! left a serious hole in the roster of A-list mystery writers! and the publication of a posthumous novel starring her series hero! Marshal Guarnaccia! of the Florence Carabinieri! is a welcome event for all fans of international crime fiction." Booklist Praise for Magdalen Nabb "It takes a writer as good as Magdalen Nabb to remind us how subtle the art of the mystery can be." New York Times From the Hardcover edition. Informationen zum Autor Magdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire and trained as a potter. In 1975, she left her old life behind and moved with her son to Florence, where she knew no one and even though she didn't speak any Italian, but where she fell in love with the local setting. Her Marshal Guarnaccia series, which has been translated into ten languages, was inspired by a real local marshal she befriended in the tiny pottery town of Montelupo Fiorentino. Nabb wrote children's fiction and crime novels until her death in 2007. Klappentext Based on a chilling true crime, The Monster of Florence follows the reopening of a cold case-a serial killer who terrorized Florence for two decades. Marshal Guarnaccia's job with the Carabinieri usually involves restoring stolen handbags to grateful old ladies and lost cameras to bewildered tourists. So when he is assigned to work with the Florence police in trying to track down a vicious serial killer, he feels out of his league. The crimes he must try to understand are grotesque, the case materials harrowing. To make matters worse, the Proc he must report to is Simonetti, the same man he knows drove an innocent man to suicide several years earlier in his blind quest for a conviction. Chapter One It was so dark in the cathedral square on that November Saturday evening that it seemed that it should certainly be cold. Instead of which, as the great bell in Giotto's marble tower struck six, the shoppers scurrying below it were overheated and out of temper. Somewhere among them a small child was crying and stamping in frustration. Marshal Guarnaccia pushed his way through the crowd wishing he hadn't been deceived into wearing an overcoat. Everything about the evening was...

Praise for The Monster of Florence

"One of Nabb's darkest novels, almost shocking in its disenchanted acknowledgment of human brutality."
—The New York Times Book Review

"The late Magdalen Nabb never wrote a bad book.... She’s well worth discovering by a new generation of readers... [Monster of Florence] is one of the best of her works and readers can revel in the streets, sounds, smells of Florence."
—The Globe and Mail

“It is so good to walk with [Magdalen Nabb] through the animated streets of Florence, with its carabinieri, its ordinary people, its little trattorie and even its noisy tourists. It's all so alive, you can hear the noises, smell the smells, see that morning mist on the fast flowing Arno…. Bravissimo!”
—Georges Simenon

"Monster is powerful in its indirection and its presentation in a fictional context of the facts of a real and celebrated case.... It's both a very effective crime novel and something more than a crime novel."
—Glenn Harper, International Noir Fiction

"A haunting thriller where past and present collide, where ambition brutalizes those who have most need of compassion and where lies are often more credible than truth."
—Val McDermid 

"Nabb's account of the details is freshly horrifying.... The vicious, incestuous suspect is so vivid on the page that the reader feels the need of a shower after each of his many appearances."
—Donna Leon for the Sunday Times

“Fans who mourned [Nabb’s] death in 2007 will want this mystery.”
—Library Journal

"Nabb’s death, in 2007, left a serious hole in the roster of A-list mystery writers, and the publication of a posthumous novel starring her series hero, Marshal Guarnaccia, of the Florence Carabinieri, is a welcome event for all fans of international crime fiction."
—Booklist

Praise for Magdalen Nabb

"It takes a writer as good as Magdalen Nabb to remind us how subtle the art of the mystery can be."
—New York Times

From the Hardcover edition.

Autorentext
Magdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire and trained as a potter. In 1975, she left her old life behind and moved with her son to Florence, where she knew no one and even though she didn't speak any Italian, but where she fell in love with the local setting. Her Marshal Guarnaccia series, which has been translated into ten languages, was inspired by a real local marshal she befriended in the tiny pottery town of Montelupo Fiorentino. Nabb wrote children's fiction and crime novels until her death in 2007.

Klappentext

Based on a chilling true crime, The Monster of Florence follows the reopening of a cold case-a serial killer who terrorized Florence for two decades.

Marshal Guarnaccia's job with the Carabinieri usually involves restoring stolen handbags to grateful old ladies and lost cameras to bewildered tourists. So when he is assigned to work with the Florence police in trying to track down a vicious serial killer, he feels out of his league. The crimes he must try to understand are grotesque, the case materials harrowing. To make matters worse, the Proc he must report to is Simonetti, the same man he knows drove an innocent man to suicide several years earlier in his blind quest for a conviction.

Zusammenfassung
Based on a chilling true crime, The Monster of Florence follows the reopening of a cold case—a serial killer who terrorized Florence for two decades.

Marshal Guarnaccia's job with the Carabinieri usually involves restoring stolen handbags to grateful old ladies and lost cameras to bewildered tourists. So when he is assigned to work with the Florence police in trying to track down a vicious serial killer, he feels out of his league. The crimes he must try to understand are grotesque, the case materials harrowing.  To make matters worse, the Proc he must report to is Simonetti, the same man he knows drove an innocent man to suicide several years earlier in his blind quest for a conviction.

Leseprobe
Chapter One

It was so dark in the cathedral square on that November Saturday evening that i…