PROPERTY OF BLOOD (Magdalen Nabb's Florentine Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Magdalen Nabb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

The kidnapping for ransom of a beautiful American-born contessa poses Marshal Guarnaccia's gravest challenge.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Elegant is the word for Nabb's (The Monster of Florence; The Marshal at the Villa Torrini; etc.) 11th Salvatore Guarnaccia psychological police procedural elegant in style and elegant of mind. Guarnaccia, marshal of the carabinieri, finds clues in the way people behave. His colleagues appreciate his talents, but tend to keep him on the sidelines of any investigation. For them, his greatest talent is in dealing with difficult people, questioning those reluctant to speak, calming those who refuse to be calmed. The unpretentious Sicilian sleuth, whose adopted city is Florence, has a gift for inspiring trust and encouraging others to confide in him. He also has a home life that includes a loving wife who nags him and two kids who give him problems. He is endearingly absent-minded. In the present tale, an American-born woman, Countess Olivia Brunamonti, has been kidnapped by a band of professional thugs. Italian law forbids the paying of ransom, and the family does not report the kidnapping for a week, deepening Olivia's danger. In addition, the gang has left a false trail to a rival clan. Time, as they say, is running out. Olivia is a wonderful character. Her graphic account of her ordeal, which runs intermittently throughout the book, gives the reader a perspective on the physical and psychological seriousness of her situation. Nabb, an Englishwoman who has lived in Florence since 1975, is a fine writer with a sharp intelligence and deep sensitivity to human pain and frailty. (Sept. 18)an Englishman (1982), will be reissued in paperback simultaneously.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Marshal Guarnaccia, featured in some ten previous titles, investigates the kidnap-for-ransom of an American-born countess in Florence. With a low-key narrative and protagonist but effective nonetheless.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Soho Press (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569472513
• ISBN-13: 978-1569472514
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,136,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nabb: A Storyteller with Style, Insight and EQ, January 8, 2003

By 

L. Simpson "LJ Simpson 'print addict" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Property of Blood (Paperback)

Magdalen Nabb's detective (The Marshall) is based in Florence and nobody captures the dark side of that brilliantly lit town better than Nabb.

"Property of Blood" represents a change for Nabb in that great chunks of this book are written as if in the first person, by a woman who has been kidnapped. I couldn't help but ponder whether Nabb herself had spent time with victims of this all too common Italian crime: the accounts of the Italianized-American fasion maven's plight are chilling. Nabb really gets inside her soul.

The tale is a page turner despite the fact that there are some things the reader knows right from the start. Those who are familiar with Nabb's work will recognize the intricate misunderstandings that The Marshall encounters because he, as usual, fails to acknowledge his own gifts and the esteem in which he is held by his colleagues.

Here, too, we meet the family dynamic of the Marshall's own relatives contrasted with that of the victim's family in the characteristic manner that is so revealing of modern Italian life.

Nabb is amazing and this may be her best yet. If you haven't read the rest of this remarkable writer's work, you are in for a real treat of both character development (start at the beginning of The Marshall's career) and excellence of story crafting.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Italian mystery, December 26, 2002

By 

"askangie" (Bardstown, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PROPERTY OF BLOOD (Magdalen Nabb's Florentine Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I read this book about a year ago when I checked it out at my local library, so pardon me if I don't remember all of the details correctly. The opening of the book describes in intense detail a harrowing kidnapping, from the point of view of the kidnappee. You won't be able to put it down until the character is safely?? at home--actually you won't be able to put it down until you discover what actually happened at home to bring about the horrendous crime. The detective in this series is funny but has less personality than other detectives I enjoy. However, the story--which is set in the world of fashion--makes up for any defects. Enjoy!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kidnap thriller, March 26, 2009

By 

Marshall Lord (Whitehaven, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Property of Blood (Paperback)

Contessa Olivia Brunamonti, the heroine of the story, is an American former supermodel, who some decades previously had married an Italian count with a famous name but not much money.

After Count Brunamonti's death, Olivia used a combination of her own former fame as an international supermodel, her husband's family name, and her skills in the fashion industry, to build a successful fashion house. The story begins when her children are grown and her daughter has followed in Olivia's footsteps by becoming a famous supermodel in her own right.

Unfortunately a bunch of criminals wrongly assume from the Contessa's famous name and the success of her business that she must be far more wealthy than is actually the case (Olivia's husband having left her far more in the way of debts than tangible assets.) So they target her family for kidnap. Striking in the dark and intending to grab the daughter, they accidentaly kidnap Olivia herself.

The first part of the book and further sections through the narrative provide a chilling account of the contessa's ordeal at the hands of the kidnappers, which is real enough to be quite frightening. The book also contains a detective story as Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia faces a race against time to rescue Olivia, and examines a number of issues including

* survival - how people in a dangerous situation react to maximise their chances of living through it

* Stockholm syndrome, e.g. how some prisoners come to sympathise with their captors, though the heroine of this story is no Patty Hearst

* how anti-kidnapping laws can penalise the victims (with reference to a law which freezes the assets of the family of kidnap victims to prevent them paying ransoms)

* family relationships: the contessa's son and daughter are bitterly divided about whether to go to the police when she is kidnapped, and there are other family issues which I won't explain in more detail to avoid spoiling the story.

This is one of a series of books featuring Marshal Guarnaccia. Not a cheerful read but a fairly powerful one.