A Marshal Guarnaccia Novel: The Marshal Makes His Report

Carabiniere Marshal Guarnaccia investigates murder, prostitution and corruption in Florence. Nabb does for Florence what Donna Leon does for Venice, showing us the murky realities behind the stunning tourist exteriors.

After all the years that Marshal Guarnaccia has commanded the Carabinieri Station housed in the Pitti Palace, great paintings are as familiar a part of his life as the snarled-up traffic, the marble fa-ades, drug-dealing, high fashion and higher pollution of his adopted city of Florence. Still, he doesn't consciously know anything about art and if he joins battle with a successful forger, it is only as a favour to an old friend and because the man fascinates him.

Then he is dragged into a last-ditch attempt to nail the serial killer who has ritually slaughtered seven courting couples over the last ten years, only to find himself faced with a forgery in his own line of business, and the problems are distressingly familiar. Nobody wants to know the truth about a fake: not the buyer, not the seller, not the fooled expert or the general public.

If a false case is made against the wrong man, who is going to admit it? The Marshal has the courage to speak out but no one wants to listen. It is more comfortable for everyone, even the wrongly accused man, if the blood-soaked vineyards keep the secret of what really happened on those Saturday nights of the new moon . . .