Magdalen Nabb…left a final reminder of why she is irreplaceable among English-speaking novelists who write mysteries with Italian locales. Like the 13 previous novels in this series set in Florence and featuring Marshal Guarnaccia, Vita Nuova reflects the sensibility of someone who sees much, speaks softly and takes pity on strangers.
—The New York Times
In Nabb's somber final Marshal Guarnaccia mystery (after 2007's Death of a Dutchman), Guarnaccia investigates the shooting death of beautiful 25-year-old Daniela Paoletti, the elder daughter of a wealthy Florentine nightclub owner, in her tower bedroom of the family's villa in the hills above the city. Daniela's murder unsettles the marshal, a compassionate, sensitive man who's preoccupied with such midlife issues as taking early retirement from the military. Guarnaccia senses something is amiss in the Paoletti household, where everyone suffers from one malady or another. The father is recovering from a mild stroke in the hospital while his wife appears to be in a constant state of alcoholic intoxication. Rumors of the lucrative trafficking of young women from Eastern European countries sound alarm bells for the marshal, who decides he has to put aside personal concerns to pursue the truth. Nabb, who died in Florence in 2007, will be much missed by those who like their mysteries to raise the big questions of life. (June)
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A murder investigation uncovers a nest of corruption that proves career-threatening to Marshall Salvatore Guarnaccia of the Florence carabinieri. An unwed mother is found shot in her bedroom in her parents' upscale home. It has the look of a professional job yet seems motivated by hate. When the marshall learns of the victim's father's role in the international sex trade and about the involvement of his prosecutorial nemesis, De Vita, he faces a profound professional problem that he's unable to share with his wife, Teresa. There's never any doubt that the ruminating technophobic marshall will do what is morally right, particularly when innocent women and children are at risk. This 14th series outing is sadly the last since Nabb, a longtime resident of Florence, died there last August. Fortunately, her mysteries, with Florentine settings and complex characterizations, live on. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ2/1/08.]
—Michele Leber
Adult/High School -Some of Marshal Guarnaccia's superiors describe him as slow and dim-witted, but, like TV's Columbo, his appearance is deceiving. As the story begins, Daniela Paoletti, daughter of a notorious underworld gangster, has been murdered. Guarnaccia arrives to investigate and, as he looks over the crime scene, he feels apprehensive and wary. The villa emits a feeling of unease and oppression. Conditions don't improve when prosecutor Fulvio De Vita, a man with whom the marshal has had unpleasant interactions, arrives to assist in the investigation. His help is distracting, and Guarnaccia gets the idea that he would prefer that someone else were in charge. But he perseveres and slowly unravels the ugly underside of Paoletti's legal-looking businesses. Women are being sold into prostitution, and others are forced to be strippers, exotic dancers, cleaners, and house servants. What puts Guarnaccia into overdrive to solve the murder is learning that children are also being used in the nefarious ventures. With the help of a cagey newspaper reporter, he uses his perceived slow-wittedness to solve the crime and in doing so provides a new life for the people caught up in Paoletti's heinous world. This book works like an episode of Columbo or a fast food meal. It's filling and quick, and will satisfy readers whether they have a preference for action or characterization.-Joanne Ligamari, Rio Linda School District, Sacramento, CA
The final appearance of Florentine-based Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia. The family is rich enough and important enough to command the personal attention of Prosecutor Fulvio De Vita when Daniela Paoletti, a single mother working on her chemistry thesis, is murdered at home while her father is in the hospital recovering from a stroke; her mother is glassy-eyed with grief, drugs or alcohol; and her sister Silvana weeps and screams and covetously strokes her dead sister's communion necklace. Marshal Guarnaccia, obliged to leave sensitive inquiries to the prosecutor at his insistence, makes little headway dealing with the immediate family until Nesti, a crime reporter who has assisted him in the past, fills him in on the Paoletti background. Papa ran a string of whores posing as exotic dancers in his nightclub; mama was a former prostitute he abused; no one knew who fathered Daniela's child; and the death may have been a warning to Paoletti from the Russian mafia. Guarnaccia, however, thinks the murder smacks of something more personal. With painstaking delicacy he elicits a tale of indentured young girls kept in place by terror and a festering jealousy spinning into madness. With the passing of Nabb (The Innocent, 2005, etc.) this past August and Michael Dibdin the year before, the Italian-set mystery has lost its two leading stylists. Guarnaccia, who like Maigret enjoys a good meal, a decent glass of wine and the company of his wife, will be missed.
Praise for Vita Nuova
“A final reminder of why [Nabb] is irreplaceable among English speaking novelists who write mysteries with Italian locales. Like the 13 previous novels in this series set in Florence and featuring Marshal Guarnaccia, Vita Nuova reflects the sensibility of someone who sees much, speaks softly and takes pity on strangers.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Has the ability to impart the tremor of someone walking over your grave . . . The world of crime fiction [is] poorer for the loss of Magdalen Nabb.”
—The Boston Phoenix
“Deceptively rich . . . As always, Nabb wins us over with the Colombo-like Guarnaccia’s mixture of surface bumbling and subtle shrewdness, mixed with a heightened sensitivity to both everyday woes and heart-wrenching tragedy . . . Nabb writes more traditional, Simenon-style mysteries . . . This series will be missed by all devotees of the Italian crime novel.”
—Booklist, Starred Review
Praise for Magdalen Nabb
"Exquisite."
—The New York Times Book Review
"Every word should be savored."
—Washington Post Book World
"The best mystery news in ages is that Soho is restoring to the canon Magdalen Nabb and her tremendous creation, Marshal Guarnaccia of the Italian Police in Florence."
—Chicago Tribune
"Nabb continues to extend conventions of the police procedural to suit her own intriguing vision and purpose."
—Philadelphia Inquirer
