Marshal at the Villa Torrini (Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation) [Paperback]

Magdalen Nabb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2009 | Series: Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation

Praise for the Marshal Guarnaccia series:

“The exquisite sensibility of Magdalen Nabb’s police procedurals has all to do with the feeling of displacement that haunts her sensitively observed characters.”—The New York Times Book Review

A well-known writer is found dead in the Villa Torrini near Florence without a mark of violence on her. Marshal Guarnaccia of the carabinieri must solve the mystery while struggling with a new legal system and a strict diet.

Magdalen Nabb was born and educated in England. She lived and wrote in Florence, where she died in August 2007.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime (July 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569475628
• ISBN-13: 978-1569475621
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.6 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Italian Maigret, September 7, 2000

By 

Macready Lawes (The Acoastal Regions) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Marshal at the Villa Torrini (Hardcover)

Very much in the spirit of Simenon's Maigret series, Magdalen Nabb's Marshal Guarnaccia mysteries are equal parts procedural insight, portrait of society, and character study. Nabb captures the spirit of real police work, especially when complicated by the politics and bureaucracy that dominate present-day Italy. She also presents Florence in all its beauty and tawdriness, as seen through the eyes of her southern-born hero. The Marshal is a marvellous creation, an eternal outsider who thinks himself to be slow and is regularly underestimated by colleagues and criminals alike. Nabb's books are too often underestimated as well--by the likes of people who cannot spell either aficionado or eccentric--which is a shame. While Michael Dibdin's fine books centering on the adventures of Aurelio Zen are more sensational, Nabb's Guarnaccia novels have every bit as much heart and shrewd observation. I recommend them all and devoutly wish that *The Monster of Florence* would finally be published in the U. S.

4 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Like Water Dehydrating, April 15, 2000

By 

SanFranEditor (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Marshal at the Villa Torrini (Hardcover)

This mystery has it all: awkward writing, a simplistic plot with no twists or turns, a plodding protagonist who never redeems himself, and snippets of a totally unnecessary and unexplained second mini-police/judicial case crowding its way throughout the main story.

This book may be the ideal reading material for excentric elderly English spinsters who speak to their dead Pomeranians or Pekinese and don't wish to have their pulses quickened.

I actually read every last word -- even to the final page -- to ensure that there was not some exceedingly clever turn of events that would make the pedestrian writing and jumble of disjointed events come together brilliantly. Nothing to fear: the author did not pull a Columbo.

If you have the choice, watch water dehydrate. It will prove to be more satisfying by several orders of magnitude.