Customer Reviews

Some Bitter Taste (A Marshal Guarnaccia Mystery)

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I recommend that readers with the same goals as lvkleydorff (see review below) follow his advice and avoid the literate, beautifully written complexities of Ms. Nabb's Marshall in her all too brief series. Our hero plods, rather than walks, understands rather than articulates, and is convinced that he is barely useful to his superiors. He is actually does the detecting, while others are managing the procedural pieces. The plots are well constructed and unfold in a series of gifts to the reader. The Marshall understands the morality that guides the characters, and suggests that character is more of a guide to action than shallower motives. In the Marshall's efforts to understand what he sees, the reader is drawn into the same comtemplations that this middle aged, overweight sensitive and kind man without exposition by the author or exploratory peeks into the Marshall's thoughts. That's writing that is magic. In Some Bitter Taste, each of the victims would have been far happier and avoided their fate had they not lived by the rules laid for them in childhood. The unmentioned lesson seems to be that the current presence of the long past is inescapable, which seems a fact in real life for Florence (the setting) or any country with a long and remembered history. The Marshal, with his solid presence and blinded by the sun (light makes his eyes water), takes in the shadows to discover the true crimes. The atmosphere, point of view and necessary time to have the reader join the world Nabb develops so well is not for readers of thrillers and people who want only a plot to unravel. If you love true mystery, really good books and lovely writing, as well as utterly unconventional heroes, read these books.

The question of how responsible we are for the fates of others occupies the center of this Marshall Guarnaccia tale, set in Florence. When Sara Hirsch comes to the marshall in a state of terrible fear and anxiety because someone has been entering her apartment in her absence, he promises to come to see her. He is prevented from doing so as promptly as he would have liked; the scene in which he finally approaches her building is a masterly rendering of the experience of precognition. Needless to say, he finds her dead. His search for the reason for her death is gradually woven into the resolution of other situations in his territory, including a theft at the palatial home of a wealthy English art collector and the fate of a beautiful, young, and pregnant Albanian prostitute. The Marshal is a very humane man, and very good at his job. It is a pleasure to spend time with him.

Once he handles a couple of other more pressing police matters, Florence Marshall Salvatore Guarnaccia will deal with Signora Sara Hirsch's complaint that someone had entered her apartment. So he goes ahead and deals with an illegal abused, underage Albanian prostitute and a minor robbery at the Villa L'Uliveto. When he arrives at Sara's abode, he regrets his assumption that the breaking and entering was a minor matter for he finds her dead.

Feeling guilty, he makes inquiries into the deceased. He learns she was impoverished, but expects to make fortune when a Monet that the Nazis stole from her family was soon to be returned to her. Allegedly a half-brother possesses the art treasure. However, before he can track down the missing masterpiece, Guarnaccia learns that someone also killed Sir Christopher, whose villa robbery made Salvatore arrive too late to help Sara. As he keeps digging, he finds a link between the two deaths, but so far unable to determine who wanted both dead.

The Guarnaccia police procedurals are some of the sub-genre's best. Readers get a taste of Italian law enforcement through the methodical Guarnaccia, a tremendous lead protagonist. SOME BTTER TASTE is a strong entry as the cleverly deigned who-done-it is more personnel than usual for the quiet hero. Anyone who reads this novel or any of Magdalen Nabb's works will go away with a sweet taste desiring more novels by a superb mystery author.

Harriet Klausner

Magdalen Nabb had the ability to describe the city she loved in the same way that Donna Leon describes Venice. Just like Venice, the town has to live on the kindness of others, i.e. tourism. Being a native "City Kid" (from NYC) I know what it's like to see the favorite parts of your city inundated by people in garish attire and cameras, being lead around by some one carrying an umbrella or placard. Having to listen to some one 'spewing' forth verbal diarrhea about one's home city (sometimes in total inaccuracy) is almost as bad as these visitors who clog up the streets and parks. The Marshal has all my sympathies as he tries to get across the street and is constantly blocked by some camera bug taking pictures that can be found on any website and probably done better. Crossing a street in Mid-Manhattan in August is like seeing your favorite corner turned into a communal standing zone. And should you shove your way through this throng, they comment on your 'discourtesy'. Hey, I didn't invite you here, get out of the way I've got to get to work.

God bless the Marshal for his patients, anyone who travels 'knows' you don't carry an expensive camera, or a large purse, because some cretin is going to try and steal it from you. Keep your money in your front pocket, your passport in the hotel safe (carry a copy of the front page with you) and never, never carry a bag over your shoulder (unless you like getting pulled down the road by some idiot on a moped). For the Marshal it's bad enough that in August, Firenze (Florence) is a steam-bath and you can see which air not to breath, but people keep coming into his office with the same complaints. Does anyone really expect the Police or Carabinieri to find their camera or purse, so why bother, just consider it part of the local culture.

An old Italian woman comes to see the Marshal because she thinks some one has been inside of her apartment, and though nothing is missing, she is scared. At the same time Guarnaccia is called by the Captain to come with him to the house of a rich foreigner who has had some minor property (hairbrush, cufflinks, etc) stolen. It's not important but the gentleman who has been robbed is. A few days later when Guarnaccia goes to the house of the old woman to see how she is, he finds that she is dead. It appeared that she has had a heart attack, but he Marshal isn't so sure that there isn't something more behind her death. In his bulldog way, the Marshal digs into the background of the old Signora and the building she lived in, her life and that of her family. *********SPOILERS BELOW*************

It turns out that the old woman (Signorina Hirsch) had lived in the building most of her life, and had been twice hospitalized in a psychiatric unit. Her mother was a Czech Jew who escaped the Nazis and gave birth to her in a convent (after the nun's baptized her mother). From there there are gyrations and in the end the good end up dead and the evil seem to prosper. The Marshal is upset but there's nothing he can do. But it's a good clear story of how things work to the detriment of the innocent in Italy. It's more important to protect the system then the people.

Be that as it may, this is where my major complaint comes in, and that is that Nabb who is English by birth and lived for over twenty years in Italy, doesn't appear to understand (in this case) much about people she writes about. The simplest example is that the baptizing of the mother and then the child so they would be safe in the convent is treated as nothing special. For those who lost parent and grandparents (and more cousins than I care to remember) to the Nazis, being baptized was tantamount to being dead to their families. In most convents where Jews were hidden, they were not made to submit to baptism, but kept their faith as a way to honor their dead families. It's not something that's easy to explain, but ask any Armenian or Tutsi if they would give up their identity after having tens of their families killed. Nabb's discussion of the implications of the Holocaust on the people who survived it is superficial and demeaning at best. But don't think I thought she did this on purpose, but I feel that it's still unforgivable. The English have a habit of being unconcerned about the historical background of others, ask any Irishman or Scot.

Zeb Kantrowitz

This book just ambles on and on, and on. The mareciallo talks to a number of people.The capitano talks to another number of people. Nothing nasty is really happening, and nothing connects up. Add a measure of holocaust to make it sinister. Only in the very end do the explanations come. They don’t make too much sense, and certainly could not have been predicted.

This is the first book I read by this author. I believe that I will not touch another one in a long time. It does not even have the redeeming quality of well delineated characters.