The Marshal and the Murderer [Paperback]

Magdalen Nabb (Author)

Book Description

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nabb's modest Florentine Marshal Guarnaccia makes his fifth appearance in this superb novel with fully realized characters and an engrossing mystery. Called upon to find a missing Swiss student, Monica Heer, by Elisabeth Stauffer, her nervous companion, Guarnaccia goes to a pottery center outside Florence, Monica's last known destination. Local policeman Marshal Niccolini helps the visiting detective interview the artisans, employees of a man called "Little Moretti," but nobody offers useful information. When the girl's body is found behind Moretti's factory, Guarnaccia focuses on clues in anonymous letters that hint at the source of Moretti's capital and his connection with the village's wealthiest man, who is accused of having betrayed the partisans to the SS during the Nazi occupation. By the time Guarnaccia dredges up submerged truths, both he and everyone else involved are profoundly affected by the case. Nabb enhances the story wtih descriptions of talented potters at work, some of whom raise the craft to an art, and with merry contrasts between the shy, quiet Guarnaccia and the bluff, ebullient Niccolini.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The author's Florence-based police procedurals get better all the time." --Kirkus Reviews

"Nabb continues to extend the conventions of the police procedural to suit her own intriguing vision and purpose." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Elegant in style and elegant of mind." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
-- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569472971
• ISBN-13: 978-1569472972
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The potters Tale, August 19, 2002

By 

Fergus Bastock (York, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Marshal and the Murderer (Paperback)

SoHo continue to delight by re-issuing Nabb's superlative Florentine novels ( although why they aren't being put out in chronological order defeats me ).

The story revolves around Guarnaccia's gradual unravelling of a decades old feud and it's tragic echo in the present.

As ever with Ms. Nabb the story is told with wit and compassion , there are no car chases ( there is a bus ride in the rain ), no shoot-outs ( in 20 years Guarnaccia's Beretta has remained firmly in it's holster ) and no lack of compellingly drawn believable characters.Yet again the atmosphere of Florence is brought out ( apparently ) efortlessly and adds enormously to the success of the book.

These are among the finest ctime novels to be written in the last 25 years.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the past impacts the present, March 24, 2010

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The MARSHAL AND THE MURDERER (Hardcover)

First Sentence: "Well, I hope I haven't taken up too much of your time..."

A very shy young Swiss woman asks the help of Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia. Her roommate and friend, who has been studying pottery making in a small village outside Florence, has gone missing. With the help of the local marshal, Niccolini, Guarnaccia must uncover the secrets of the town and its history to solve the crime.

With each book, I come to like this series more. But I think my reticent was more my fault than the author's. I stared out comparing Nabb to Donna Leon, which isn't fair as they are very different writers. I also didn't understand the structure of the Italian police forces, and I do fault Nabb for not clarifying that.

Once I rectified those two things, I find Nabb has created a protagonist who has really grown on me. The Marshal doesn't consider himself to be smart and that he seems to be half-asleep on his feet. Although not in a Sherlock Holmes manner, he observes, considers and puts the information together in his own time. He is big, clumsy, and allergic to the sun, loves his family but is accustomed to living on his own, and I think he's a great character. However, it was fun, in this book, to see him working with Marshal Niccolini, who is hyperactive and, therefore, a delightful contrast.

In considering the various aspects of Nabb's writing, although I do wish Nabb provided a stronger sense of place, I cannot fault her voice and dialogue. She has a subtle humor which offsets some of the darkness to the story, and her dialogue has a very natural flow. Even when she doesn't identify the speaker with each sentence, you know who is speaking. Not every author accomplishes this.

What I particularly liked was the plot. What starts as a "simple" disappearance and murder, leads to something much larger and darker, involving more than just the victim and the killer. Nabb utilizes the theme of the sins of the father; "...I always hated that idea but when you think about it in concrete terms it isn't a moral condemnation, just an observation of fact." There is a well-done twist to the plot and an excellent, albeit somewhat sad, end.

Only the inclusion of a portent has dropping my rating from being "excellent" to "very good+," but I do highly recommend it.

THE MARSHALL AND THE MURDERER (Pol Proc-Marshal Guarnaccia-Florence, Italy-Cont) - VG+
Nabb, Magdalen - 5th in series
Charles Scribner's Sons, ©1987, US Hardcover - ISBN: 0684188848

4.0 out of 5 stars We Knew at Some Time a Potter Would Be in this Series, August 10, 2010

By 

Grey Wolffe "Zeb Kantrowitz" (North Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The MARSHAL AND THE MURDERER (Hardcover)

The Marshal is having a quiet, though hot summer; his wife and sons have finally come to live with him in Florence and he goes home everyday he can for lunch. But in the countryside outside of Florence a young Swiss-German girl has disappeared. She had been studying pottery, and glazing in a small town in the countryside. Because she is a foreigner, who is based in Florence, his Captain asks him to go help find her. While learning his way around in this very insular town, the Marshal hopes that he's not being an inconvenience to the local Marshal Nicollini.

When the girl's body is found in a area used for discarded pottery (a shard ruck) the Marshal knows he won't be getting any help from the locals. Neither will Nicollini (who is a Roman) who has only been in the town for one year. If no one will talk to you, but everyone knows what happened, what can you do? Both of our Marshal's come to their wits end more than once.

This is the best character study yet by Nabb. While in her other books, most of the secondary characters have been two dimensional as well as skeletal, here we have an abundance of suspects. In a town like this, no slight is ever forgotten, they're passed down from generation to generation until everyone forgets why, only that it's there. Getting a straight answer out of anyone, even if it's what's the time of day, can make you feel that your inside of a Fellini movie or a Dali painting.

In his own inimitable way, Guarnaccia, who doesn't think of himself as smart or even very competent, goes about doggedly until he comes up with the suspect and he cause of the young woman's death. Well done Salva!

Zeb Kantrowitz