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5.0 out of 5 stars
Marshal Guarnaccia and other people's little problems, February 21, 2004
The best time to murder someone in Italy is during its brief but sweltering summer, when all the sensible people have left for the coast. Those who are left, like Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia of the Florence Carabinieri, keep to the margins of life - the shady side of the street and the edges of the day.
It would be easy to dismiss the suicide of a neighborhood "crazy" as just another sad chapter in the life of the urban poor. But Crazy Clementina lives in a close-knit traditional Italian community, which makes sure that the unfortunate neighbor has a daily bowl of soup with bread or enough gas to feed her little stove.
The Marshal and the Madwoman was first published in Britain by Penguin Books in 1988. It's one in a series about the phlegmatic Sicilian investigator, who (to his supervisor's constant irritation) tends to get involved in "other people's little problems". This is a re-issue by Soho Press.
I've read a number of the books in the Soho Crime series and there hasn't been a dud amongst them. The writers are all first-flight: van de Wetering, Lovesey, Qiu, Matsumoto and so on. I can recommend them all.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A Florentine murder, February 2, 2010
This review is from: The MARSHAL AND THE MADWOMAN (Hardcover)
First Sentence: In spite of themselves, they paused at the edge of the stone kerb.
It is hot, humid August in Florence and the city is nearly empty of residents. Attempting to teach his wife to drive, Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia, of the carabinieri, comes across some of his men in an ancient quarter of the city. A nearly naked woman is causing disruption by shouting down to a crowd, which is encouraging her.
Days later, Guarnaccia is called out to the same quarter as the woman has been found dead by apparent suicide. But suicide it is not, and Guarnaccia wants to know who would murder this woman who was considered "not all there," is thought by all to be poor, in spite of a thousand lira he's found in a tin, and who has not a single photograph in her apartment.
It has taken me awhile to get into the feel of the Guarnaccia books, but they have definitely grown on me with each book.
Nabb's books are about people. Salvatore Guarnaccia has lived away from his wife because of his posting and the young men who serve under him have, in some sense, become surrogate sons as he's been away from his own. Now that his wife is with him, it adds another dimension to the character. Guarnaccia's wife is trying to become accustomed to being with her husband again and living in a city with which she is unfamiliar.
Nabb bring all the characters to life; the owner of the bar and somewhat head man of the small quarter in which the crime occurs and, most particularly, the victim about whose life we learn as Guarnaccis investigates her death.
The plot is very good. Guarnaccia has to deal with the frustrations of his branch not always having autonomy over their investigations. But he believes in what he does and in people. The end was wonderfully done.
Rather than having an all encompassing sense of place about Florence, I feel Nabb is acquainting us with the city one bit at a time, rather as one would discover a city. I was unfamiliar with the floor of 1966 and its vivid inclusion was not only informative but critical.
This series has a very different feel from Donna Leon's Brunetti books, and definitely holds its own.
NOTE: The carabinieri is one of eight branches of enforcement in Italy. They are a special branch of the army with similar functions to the police, sometimes overlapping with the other branches of the police. They are particularly concerning criminal investigation. They deal with national and serious crime, including organized crime, and are Italy's most efficient, and best funded, and professional police force. Being a military force, they are housed in barracks (caserma) in all major towns and cities,
THE MARSHAL AND THE MADWOMAN (Pol Proc-Mar. Salvatore Guarnaccia-Florence, Italy-Cont) - VG
Nabb, Magdalen - 6th in series
Scribners, 1988, US Hardcover - ISBN: 0684189844
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