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Marshal Guarnaccia Mystery #14
Vita Nuova
Praise for the Marshal Guarnaccia Series:
“It takes a writer as good as Magdalen Nabb to remind us of how subtle the art of the mystery can be. . . . Nabb has Simenon’s knack.”—The New York Times Book Review
“If you didn’t make it to Florence this summer, don’t despair. . . . There’s a new Marshal Guarnaccia investigation.”—Chicago Tribune
“Surpasses the best of Simenon.”—Kirkus Reviews
“There is no other series quite like the Guarnaccia stories.”—The Washington Post Book World
Daniela is a quiet single mother studying for a doctorate in chemistry. She rarely goes out, so her murder in her bedroom at the family’s new villa seems inexplicable. It is true that her mother, who appears to be an alcoholic; her younger sister, who has had mental problems; and her father, who has made his money running nightclubs and is probably involved in the international sex trade, are not your average home-loving Italian nuclear family, but what can she have done to be singled out for slaughter? And why has the prosecutor asked specifically for Marshal Guarnaccia to head the investigation?
This is the fourteenth book in this acclaimed series. Magdalen Nabb, who was born and educated in England, lived and wrote in Florence, where she died on August 18, 2007.
From the Hardcover edition.
“It takes a writer as good as Magdalen Nabb to remind us of how subtle the art of the mystery can be. . . . Nabb has Simenon’s knack.”—The New York Times Book Review
“If you didn’t make it to Florence this summer, don’t despair. . . . There’s a new Marshal Guarnaccia investigation.”—Chicago Tribune
“Surpasses the best of Simenon.”—Kirkus Reviews
“There is no other series quite like the Guarnaccia stories.”—The Washington Post Book World
Daniela is a quiet single mother studying for a doctorate in chemistry. She rarely goes out, so her murder in her bedroom at the family’s new villa seems inexplicable. It is true that her mother, who appears to be an alcoholic; her younger sister, who has had mental problems; and her father, who has made his money running nightclubs and is probably involved in the international sex trade, are not your average home-loving Italian nuclear family, but what can she have done to be singled out for slaughter? And why has the prosecutor asked specifically for Marshal Guarnaccia to head the investigation?
This is the fourteenth book in this acclaimed series. Magdalen Nabb, who was born and educated in England, lived and wrote in Florence, where she died on August 18, 2007.
From the Hardcover edition.
273 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
13 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
About the author
Magdalen Nabb
62 books54 followersMAGDALEN NABB was born in Lancashire in 1947 and trained as a potter. In 1975 she abandoned pottery, sold her home and her car, and came to Florence with her son, knowing nobody and speaking no Italian. She has lived there ever since, and pursues a dual career as crime writer and children's author.
She has written fourteen crime novels featuring Marshal Guarnaccia of the carabinieri, all set in Florence, which she describes as 'a very secret city. Walk down any residential street and you have no idea what is going on behind those blank walls. It's a problem the Marshal comes up against all the time.'
Magdalen Nabb also writes the immensely successful Josie Smith books, set in her native Lancashire, which form the basis of the Granada children's TV series, Josie Smith, scripted by the author. Her first book, Josie Smith, was runner-up for the Guardian Children's Fiction Award in 1989, and in l99l, Josie Smith and Eileen was winner of the prestigious Smarties Book Prize for the 6-8 age group.
Series:
* Marshal Guarnaccia Mystery
* Josie Smith
She has written fourteen crime novels featuring Marshal Guarnaccia of the carabinieri, all set in Florence, which she describes as 'a very secret city. Walk down any residential street and you have no idea what is going on behind those blank walls. It's a problem the Marshal comes up against all the time.'
Magdalen Nabb also writes the immensely successful Josie Smith books, set in her native Lancashire, which form the basis of the Granada children's TV series, Josie Smith, scripted by the author. Her first book, Josie Smith, was runner-up for the Guardian Children's Fiction Award in 1989, and in l99l, Josie Smith and Eileen was winner of the prestigious Smarties Book Prize for the 6-8 age group.
Series:
* Marshal Guarnaccia Mystery
* Josie Smith
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
November 8, 2009
This author is new to me and when I finished the novel and looked eagerly to find others, I discovered that there are at least 13, but that sadly she had died in 2007. The book reminded me very much of Donna Leon’s fiction; not just because they each have a middle aged honest middle ranking police officer as their hero and are set in a major Italian city, in Nabb’s case Florence, but because of their humanity and their exploration of character and understanding of human frailty.
Investigating an apparently straightforward death, Guarnaccia realises that he has acquired knowledge of corruption at the highest level and that exposing it will bring disaster on himself and his family. This occurs when his wife and children are away from home and he is behaving with all the classic “deserted husband of long standing” patterns – ignoring the meals in the freezer in favour of take-away rubbish, flying into a fury with washing machines and air conditioning units and being angry with his much loved wife on the telephone. After a sleepless night he decides his only option is to send a report to the General Command of the Carabinieri and to submit his resignation. The scene where his commanding officer persuades him to trust him with this information and to withdraw the resignation is genuinely touching. The trust proves deserved and those responsible for the death are identified, but the reader is left sharing Guarnaccia’s uneasy feeling that those really responsible have not been punished.
August 25, 2012
“Vita Nuova” is the last book in the series Magdalen Nabb wrote featuring the wonderful Marshal Guarnaccia before her untimely death in 2001. And this is most certainly her best book ever. She has mastered the literary skill of mystery/crime writing. Her characters are solid and totally believable. To me, Marshal Guarnaccia is as real as they come. He’s someone I would want to meet. Through these 14 books Nabb has fully developed not only her main character, Marshal Guarnaccia, but also each of the secondary characters who make repeat appearances in her books. Also a little mention that her descriptions of Florence and precise and wonderful...taking me back to that amazing city with each book that I read.
In “Vita Nuova” Marshal Guarnaccia is faced with his own main demon...his inability to believe that he has the talent to solve a murder. He is always second guessing himself and all it takes is the condescending attitude of one his superiors to send him reeling down into a funk. Yet it’s precisely Guarnaccia who has the compassion and understanding to get to the bottom of a murder by his natural understanding of how people think and react.
I am going to miss these books!! Thank you Magdalen Nabb for a wonderful 14 books!
In “Vita Nuova” Marshal Guarnaccia is faced with his own main demon...his inability to believe that he has the talent to solve a murder. He is always second guessing himself and all it takes is the condescending attitude of one his superiors to send him reeling down into a funk. Yet it’s precisely Guarnaccia who has the compassion and understanding to get to the bottom of a murder by his natural understanding of how people think and react.
I am going to miss these books!! Thank you Magdalen Nabb for a wonderful 14 books!
June 21, 2022
“Incest?”
“Well, it’s not a crime, strictly speaking, is it?”
***
The last Marshal Guarnaccia novel. Magdalen Nabb was just finding her stride.
This novel covers many of her favoured motifs (family, mental health, immigration), but also shows the effects of corruption in high places on the lower ranks. To this end, we see Guarnaccia send a letter of resignation to the Captain—who thankfully intervenes.
I am not sure how much longer the trope of “local reporter chasing an exclusive story” will be valid as a useful assistant to law enforcement. This might be among the last contemporary novels where it makes sense. Anyway, with his knowledgeable reporter as a guide, Guarnaccia navigates the hidden world of exploited sex workers which is the source of wealth for the family whose adult daughter was shot in her own home (the crime Guarnaccia is investigating).
Guarnaccia would like to save all the exploited workers, but he must be content with only the most vulnerable. And, in the end, we must all be sad with him for the fate of those who try to save themselves.
“Well, it’s not a crime, strictly speaking, is it?”
***
The last Marshal Guarnaccia novel. Magdalen Nabb was just finding her stride.
This novel covers many of her favoured motifs (family, mental health, immigration), but also shows the effects of corruption in high places on the lower ranks. To this end, we see Guarnaccia send a letter of resignation to the Captain—who thankfully intervenes.
I am not sure how much longer the trope of “local reporter chasing an exclusive story” will be valid as a useful assistant to law enforcement. This might be among the last contemporary novels where it makes sense. Anyway, with his knowledgeable reporter as a guide, Guarnaccia navigates the hidden world of exploited sex workers which is the source of wealth for the family whose adult daughter was shot in her own home (the crime Guarnaccia is investigating).
Guarnaccia would like to save all the exploited workers, but he must be content with only the most vulnerable. And, in the end, we must all be sad with him for the fate of those who try to save themselves.
November 9, 2010
This should really get four stars, but it's nothing special.
Except, that is, in the overcrowded and ridiculously bottom-heavy field of Mysteries, which are lately more and more populated with idiot schemes for plots, cutsie/impossible detectives, cringeworthy dialogue, and freshman-year-poetry style mishaps.
It has become really difficult to find Mysteries that have no "close-the-cover-and-stand-away-from-the-book" moments, the point where all the telltale signs converge to prove they were not mistaken, the page where you lose a little faith in yourself for having come this far in pursuit of what's rapidly translating itself into The Stupid.
One symptom of this epidemic is the can-you-top-this competition wherein any newly written murder must be somehow more spectacularly grisly and uncannily gross than whatever is in current bestsellers. (If you're writing mysteries and you really think it's about that, you've got a lot to learn. Start with Aeschylus, work your way forward in time. Pause, reboot with Edgar Allen Poe. It's what you don't show that really tweaks them out, dude.)
Even voiding and ignoring those grand mal kinds of experiences, there's often enough some little nag that means you won't be returning to an author, and won't be recommending the present volume either. Any 'catchword' or repeated expression, a sidekick who is a little too gullible, a woman detective in front of whom entire gangs of construction workers cower, a character who is just in the plot to be funny, and, unless un-named and deep in the background, any pet anything. Trade you two grouchy superintendents for a story that has no nicknames involved...
So the need to consume as many good Mysteries as possible is balanced by the desire to get snagged by the fewest 'drawback' ones, with reading time being finite and all... It's always great to find an un-showy, un-remarkably functional mystery, that is free of all the negatives.
It's not the same as fiction, or, say literature, where a work has to score high into the positives on all counts, as well as being original. Mystery simply has to function properly for what it is, which is genre excercise in a pre-existing subset, of which there are only a few, such as Procedural, Society, Psych, Cozy, Manorhouse, Locked-Room, etc. What's required is simply avoiding those land-mines, like the temptation, for example, to have the detective always saying or worse, wearing some signature item or other. Or whistling.
It's going to sound like faint praise after all that, but Magdalen Nabb and her conscientious detective Guarnaccia avoid all the negatives and put the right positives on the scoreboard (and in the right order). But it's true. The Florence locale is concrete and believable, the characters real, and the crimes are not hyped to compete with Cormack McCarthy or James Ellroy or Hannibal Lector.
What's almost as important for the voracious Mystery reader is that when there is a find, there are more. And there are-- this is 13 in a series of 13, so a clean dozen elsewhere to feed the beastly addiction. The game, as always, is afoot.
Except, that is, in the overcrowded and ridiculously bottom-heavy field of Mysteries, which are lately more and more populated with idiot schemes for plots, cutsie/impossible detectives, cringeworthy dialogue, and freshman-year-poetry style mishaps.
It has become really difficult to find Mysteries that have no "close-the-cover-and-stand-away-from-the-book" moments, the point where all the telltale signs converge to prove they were not mistaken, the page where you lose a little faith in yourself for having come this far in pursuit of what's rapidly translating itself into The Stupid.
One symptom of this epidemic is the can-you-top-this competition wherein any newly written murder must be somehow more spectacularly grisly and uncannily gross than whatever is in current bestsellers. (If you're writing mysteries and you really think it's about that, you've got a lot to learn. Start with Aeschylus, work your way forward in time. Pause, reboot with Edgar Allen Poe. It's what you don't show that really tweaks them out, dude.)
Even voiding and ignoring those grand mal kinds of experiences, there's often enough some little nag that means you won't be returning to an author, and won't be recommending the present volume either. Any 'catchword' or repeated expression, a sidekick who is a little too gullible, a woman detective in front of whom entire gangs of construction workers cower, a character who is just in the plot to be funny, and, unless un-named and deep in the background, any pet anything. Trade you two grouchy superintendents for a story that has no nicknames involved...
So the need to consume as many good Mysteries as possible is balanced by the desire to get snagged by the fewest 'drawback' ones, with reading time being finite and all... It's always great to find an un-showy, un-remarkably functional mystery, that is free of all the negatives.
It's not the same as fiction, or, say literature, where a work has to score high into the positives on all counts, as well as being original. Mystery simply has to function properly for what it is, which is genre excercise in a pre-existing subset, of which there are only a few, such as Procedural, Society, Psych, Cozy, Manorhouse, Locked-Room, etc. What's required is simply avoiding those land-mines, like the temptation, for example, to have the detective always saying or worse, wearing some signature item or other. Or whistling.
It's going to sound like faint praise after all that, but Magdalen Nabb and her conscientious detective Guarnaccia avoid all the negatives and put the right positives on the scoreboard (and in the right order). But it's true. The Florence locale is concrete and believable, the characters real, and the crimes are not hyped to compete with Cormack McCarthy or James Ellroy or Hannibal Lector.
What's almost as important for the voracious Mystery reader is that when there is a find, there are more. And there are-- this is 13 in a series of 13, so a clean dozen elsewhere to feed the beastly addiction. The game, as always, is afoot.
July 4, 2016
I liked it, but it definitely wasn't my favorite of the Guarnaccia books I've read so far. They're a bit difficult to find and I was reading them in order, but then came across this one, her last before she died, and had to snap it up. It was darker for me than the others, dealing with the prostitution and enslavement of young and vulnerable immigrants. It isn't graphic in any way, but you know what's going on with these young girls. As always though, I love the details of Florence from an insiders POV; the tourists, the politics, the classism, the tight communities, the food, and the weather. And Garnaccia, a laid-back Sicilian somewhat out of place amongst the often impatient Tuscans, always shines in Nabb's books. He's one of my favorite detectives: humble, thorough, kind, a bit slow, incredibly observant of not just people but his surroundings, and a devoted if not always perfect husband. If you haven't read any Nabb, I suggest starting with the first in the series, Death of an Englishman. You won't be disappointed.
September 18, 2011
Warm, contemplative, discerning characters and the setting (Florence) carry this mystery more than the plot does. But I liked it very much. It's the last in a series, I gather, and the only one I've read. It might be interesting to go back now and read the very first one.
'You've given up smoking, then?'
'Not at all. I never give up giving up. Just giving it a rest for a bit.' p. 57
'You've given up smoking, then?'
'Not at all. I never give up giving up. Just giving it a rest for a bit.' p. 57
April 23, 2011
I was disappointed to find out that the author died in 2007. The marshal Guarnaccia is middle-aged, eats too much pasta, and watches bad TV when his wife is out of town. Much more believable than detectives that stay up doing surveillance until 2 am, and then get up at 6 am and jog on the beach. He's not a Sherlock Holmes, instead he has excellent intuition about human nature. Of course, I love that the setting is Florence, which Nabb captures in its charming grubbiness.
July 24, 2009
This is Magdalen Nabb's last book. Sadly she passed away in 2007.
Loved this.
Loved this.
February 10, 2021
I highly recommend this author as one of impressive originality and humanity. A sister to the Donna Leon style of mystery, Nabb's work would be appreciated by admirers of that school.
Indeed, Magdelan Nabb's writing deserves a greater appreciation throughout the more literate levels of the mystery genre as she seems to have laboured away under the radar of too many, producing quality work that never fails to deliver.
Her Marshall Guarnaccia series celebrates a most unlikely personality in an investigator who is full of doubts and self-deprecation, all too aware of his weaknesses but determined to listen to his excellent instincts and so to be the helper of ordinary folk.
I have struggled with the rather complicated and unique blend of law enforcement entities which Italy enjoys and still have not figured out the hierarchy and the why of it, but that aside, the Marshall has taken hold of a special place in my heart and while this title sadly was the last one of Nabb's creation before her own untimely death, it stands as a somewhat prescient and suitable finale for the series.
RIP Ms Nabb and thank you for all the excellent craft you have left behind.
Indeed, Magdelan Nabb's writing deserves a greater appreciation throughout the more literate levels of the mystery genre as she seems to have laboured away under the radar of too many, producing quality work that never fails to deliver.
Her Marshall Guarnaccia series celebrates a most unlikely personality in an investigator who is full of doubts and self-deprecation, all too aware of his weaknesses but determined to listen to his excellent instincts and so to be the helper of ordinary folk.
I have struggled with the rather complicated and unique blend of law enforcement entities which Italy enjoys and still have not figured out the hierarchy and the why of it, but that aside, the Marshall has taken hold of a special place in my heart and while this title sadly was the last one of Nabb's creation before her own untimely death, it stands as a somewhat prescient and suitable finale for the series.
RIP Ms Nabb and thank you for all the excellent craft you have left behind.
Read
April 28, 2023He is essentially a Florentine Maigret, this Marshal Guarnaccia – and “Vita Nuova” is his last book, because Magdalen died. Only two detectives (that I can think of) survived their writers, and I’m sure you can think of them too (Holmes and Poirot). There’s something daring about stealing a title from Dante (“nabbing” it, you might say).
Nabb is a fake Italian; an American who lived in Florence for decades. Perhaps she’s a little too proud of her intimacy with the palatial town?
(Am I the only person who loves the word “carabinieri?)
Opening at random:
‘Why are you talking to me? Aren’t you afraid?’
‘Because Maddalena said she’d help me. She said she’d lend me some money to start with, but I need my passport. She said Roberto could fix things so that he’d have to let us go.’
‘Paoletti?’
‘Is it not true?’
‘Yes. It’s what we’re trying to do.’
[I just noticed that the writer named a central character virtually after herself.]
Nabb is a fake Italian; an American who lived in Florence for decades. Perhaps she’s a little too proud of her intimacy with the palatial town?
(Am I the only person who loves the word “carabinieri?)
Opening at random:
‘Why are you talking to me? Aren’t you afraid?’
‘Because Maddalena said she’d help me. She said she’d lend me some money to start with, but I need my passport. She said Roberto could fix things so that he’d have to let us go.’
‘Paoletti?’
‘Is it not true?’
‘Yes. It’s what we’re trying to do.’
[I just noticed that the writer named a central character virtually after herself.]
December 30, 2021
This was Nabb’s last book. Five stars for the series and three for this, the concluding volume. The murder of a rich and politically powerful man’s daughter spins off into Florence’s prostitution and human trafficking world. There’s political corruption as well that threatens the Marshal. I think the Marshal speaks more in this one than in the rest of the books combined. The plot is just a little too claustrophobic and over heated. And I didn’t buy the Marshal going undercover with a journalist to thr strip club and brothel.
Also: the journalist’s name is Gesti in previous books, Nesti here, another formatting error in an e edition plagued by them. Nabb was not well served by the publisher.
Also: the journalist’s name is Gesti in previous books, Nesti here, another formatting error in an e edition plagued by them. Nabb was not well served by the publisher.
December 19, 2018
Uhg this book!! I haven't read any others in the series and now I don't want to. The main character being all woe is me to begin with annoyed me. The dialogue annoys me - I don't care about these stupid conversations that have nothing to do with the mystery. But most of all I hate how condescending the main character is and how infantalized all the women are. Not to mention that Guarnaccias observations are often completely not plausible. You can't claim to not recognize a woman from any other and be a detective. Wtf and the ending was equally disappointing.
May 20, 2017
Yet another routine murder mystery with a lovable policeman doing right by women and children and illegal immigrants in the face of corruption and madness. There's a bit of everything in this soup: rings of slave girls from Eastern Europe, incest and fratricide. It would put you off ever setting foot in Florence if you believed a word of it.
September 26, 2017
Brilliant character mystery
👍 Sadly the last of a series written by Magdalen Nabb, this mystery is based in Florence, as were all her mysteries. She wrote meticulous character studies of The Marshal, a low-ranking officer in the Carabinieri. His moral code, his stolid loyalty to everything he was responsible for sets him apart from other mystery "detective."
👍 Sadly the last of a series written by Magdalen Nabb, this mystery is based in Florence, as were all her mysteries. She wrote meticulous character studies of The Marshal, a low-ranking officer in the Carabinieri. His moral code, his stolid loyalty to everything he was responsible for sets him apart from other mystery "detective."
February 6, 2020
Sadly the last in the series- which I read in order-maybe four stars should’ve been more appropriate but this five star is for the culmination in a beautifully written and intelligent series-Magadelen Nabb left a beautiful legacy for readers of detective fiction
January 2, 2023
You want to meet the Marshal he is a very interesting character. My first read of this author took a little adjustment as she doesn’t add the “he said, she said” so I had to learn to follow the dialogue without. But, this is good storytelling.
May 28, 2020
An enjoyable read.
February 2, 2021
The last of Magdelan Nabb novels before she passed away and I think the best of the 14 in the series. Sad to loose...
October 31, 2016
"3,5 stars"
This was my third book (I read book 5 + 6) and it just didn't read as smoothly as the other two which I gave a four star rating. Also the dialogues seemed a little bit odd at times in this one. But overall I really like this series.
Compare to Commissario Brunetti from Donna Leon I find Nabbs books just a little bit deeper and they have more substance to me. Both play in Italy and they have a quiet likeable main character but in Donna Leons books the focus is also about Brunettis family. What his wife does, there is always something going on with his kids etc. Which makes for an entertaining light read but personal when I pick up a mystery story I want the focus at the mystery which is the case in Nabbs books. Family is also important but mostly they are gone and more in his thoughts. While Donna Leons books seem to be more successful (at least in Germany where you can see them everywhere and they even made TV movies out of it) and I read them once in a while when I'm in the mood for it, I prefer the Nabbs series.
These books are not so much about who has done it but they are more about social and character studies and these come across very believable. If you like Scandinavian thrillers where everything is detailed and calm and not about action and wild chases going on, you should give it a try.
In this particular case its about a homicide in a rich family. Who has done it?. And the central themes are human trafficking and what do you do if you have a case where you face a lot of powerful people which could ruin you and at the end you might have reached nothing? Do you still go for it?
Some things weren't that surprising but there were still some little twists I didn't see coming at the end.
This was my third book (I read book 5 + 6) and it just didn't read as smoothly as the other two which I gave a four star rating. Also the dialogues seemed a little bit odd at times in this one. But overall I really like this series.
Compare to Commissario Brunetti from Donna Leon I find Nabbs books just a little bit deeper and they have more substance to me. Both play in Italy and they have a quiet likeable main character but in Donna Leons books the focus is also about Brunettis family. What his wife does, there is always something going on with his kids etc. Which makes for an entertaining light read but personal when I pick up a mystery story I want the focus at the mystery which is the case in Nabbs books. Family is also important but mostly they are gone and more in his thoughts. While Donna Leons books seem to be more successful (at least in Germany where you can see them everywhere and they even made TV movies out of it) and I read them once in a while when I'm in the mood for it, I prefer the Nabbs series.
These books are not so much about who has done it but they are more about social and character studies and these come across very believable. If you like Scandinavian thrillers where everything is detailed and calm and not about action and wild chases going on, you should give it a try.
In this particular case its about a homicide in a rich family. Who has done it?. And the central themes are human trafficking and what do you do if you have a case where you face a lot of powerful people which could ruin you and at the end you might have reached nothing? Do you still go for it?
Some things weren't that surprising but there were still some little twists I didn't see coming at the end.
June 22, 2014
In the oppressive heat of a Florentine summer, a young single mother is brutally murdered in her bedroom. Was the crime committed by an unknown ex-boyfriend and possible father of her child, an angry gardener fired by her rich father, or the Italian or Russian mafia with links to international human trafficking? Magdalen Nabb carefully develops the story over the 262 pages of her rather short novel, revealing details bit by bit until the intricate puzzle is complete. This is a literary European-style mystery that keeps readers on their toes and requires a certain amount of concentration on their part. Not a quick read for the beach or the airport, in other words, and some readers may find the book too plodding -- there are no high-speed chases, spectacular explosions, or black-clad special ops invading small hostile countries. But thoughtful readers who enjoy fine writing, psychological depth, and well-drawn characters set in an exotic location (Florence, Italy is exotic to me, at any rate), would like this novel. Nabb's main character Marshal Guarnaccia, featured in several previous books of the series, is entirely real and human, as Nabb describes not only his actions, but his thoughts and emotions as well. I will miss him -- Magdalen Nabb passed away in 2007 at the age of 60 and Vita Nuova was completed just before her death. She died on an August day in Florence, perhaps a sweltering day very similar to the ones she describes in her last, and perhaps best book.
June 13, 2010
Delving into the flood of Eastern European girls who find themselves locked into prostitution in Italy, Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia tries to understand how it all works. A murder opens the door.
The thinnest veneer of civility and respectability covers his main prey: a businessman using the cover of a temporary staffing agency to run a huge prostitution ring, complete with casino, strip shows and hotel. The ugly East European girls end up in menial jobs through the temp agency and the beautiful ones are turned into strippers and prostitutes.
The trick comes when the cream of Florentine society and its legal representatives (judges, prosecutors, etc.) are all patrons. In the end, the Marshal unmasks this particular operation and a dirty prosecutor, but the prostitution networks remain unimpeded.
The thinnest veneer of civility and respectability covers his main prey: a businessman using the cover of a temporary staffing agency to run a huge prostitution ring, complete with casino, strip shows and hotel. The ugly East European girls end up in menial jobs through the temp agency and the beautiful ones are turned into strippers and prostitutes.
The trick comes when the cream of Florentine society and its legal representatives (judges, prosecutors, etc.) are all patrons. In the end, the Marshal unmasks this particular operation and a dirty prosecutor, but the prostitution networks remain unimpeded.
Read
May 29, 2013For a while I thought that Magdalen Nabb must have known somehow that this would be the last Marshal Guarnaccia book, but I hope I’m not spoiling anything by noting that events make it possible for the character to continue when this one ends. The title, Vita Nuova, has meaning on several levels that I won’t go into, and the Marshal is dealing with the absence of his long-suffering, sensible wife, Teresa, away looking after his ailing sister, as well as with a particularly nasty case of murder involving prostitution, dark family secrets, and exploitation of immigrants from Eastern Europe. But while the character survives, the author did not. I’m sad to have reached the end of this series and most grateful to have been able to spend time with the Marshal and his family and colleagues in their Florentine setting.
August 30, 2013
Vita Nuova is the last Marshal mystery written before Nabb died. The Marshal is once again drawn in among the newly wealthy, this time to investigate the death of a young mother on an old estate. The mystery leads the Marshal down paths that make him fear for his career and his anxiety is only heightened by his wife's absence. Much more interior to the Marshal than the typical novel in the series, his compassion and his small insights into human nature allow the case to be broken wide open. And his personal doubts and worries, from new computer technology, to real estate purchases, and his compassion, whether for a workman not being paid in a timely fashion or the flooding of a widow's basement, make it obvious why his Captain refuses to accept his resignation when it's offered. I have a few more in the series to find and read - then I will probably just start again.
July 19, 2014
Marshal Guarnaccia is called to a very fancy home where a young single mother has been found dead in her bedroom. She has been shot six times. She was discovered by her sister, who is still screaming and crying. The mother is drunk most of the time. The investigation is difficult because the prosecutor is a friend of the man who owns the house, Paoletti. Guarnaccia wants to know who is the father of the child, and this seems to be a big secret. During the investigation, Guarnaccia is aided by Nesti, a journalist, who takes him to Paoletti's "night club" and "hotel". It appears that Paoletti is involved in bringing in prostitutes and running illegal businesses which are protected by his "employment agency". However, it is dangerous to investigate too much because Paoletti has the prosecutor in his pocket.
February 3, 2020
Fun to find a new (to me) mystery author. Books set in Florence Italy; main character is a Marshal (of carabinieri) Guarnaccia. Vita Nuova was Magdalen Nabb's last book. The story involves a case that could end Guarnaccia's career because of the potential scandal involving a number of influential people. Addresses issues of principle/ethics vs safety; fortunately our hero makes the right choice.
All of Ms Nabb's books (that I have read; that's 3 so far) are 3-dimensional and let us into the thoughts of Guarnaccia for sure and sometimes of other people in the book.
All of Ms Nabb's books (that I have read; that's 3 so far) are 3-dimensional and let us into the thoughts of Guarnaccia for sure and sometimes of other people in the book.
July 4, 2015
Why my friends insist on giving me books from a series, but out of order, I will never know. This one is the last book (and I do mean last, the author has past away) in a mystery series, set in Florence, Italy. Reminiscent of Donna Leon's Italian set mysteries, with intricate plots and interesting characters, but I was hoping for more locale-Florence is such a beautiful city, it would have been nice to have more of it in the story-that's just my personal preference-the mystery is quite good.
September 8, 2012
Interesting read a dark plot that touches on murder, abuse, human trafficking, corruption, fear and loneliness , a lot if themes bu they entwined well in the story. Partly written in a stream of consciousness of the main character, which was an interesting way of writing as it did wrack up the tension. Definately want to read more in this series.
July 18, 2014
Having read many of Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti books, which are set in Venice, I looked for this as something similar. Both Leon and Nabb paint the main characters well. another common theme is that all loose ends don't get tied up, leaving the honest cop still struggling against the layers of corruption in the system.
Will be seeking out more of Nabb's books.
Will be seeking out more of Nabb's books.
August 14, 2014
So sad this is the last Marshall Guarnaccia book. I've grown quite fond of him. I picture him going, on doing his job without us all reviewing his work & looking over his shoulder. He is probably quite relieved to be on his own again.
January 22, 2009
A page-turner, but and intelligently written book with interesting and believable characters, somewhat reminiscent of a British mystery.
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