A Florentine Death

A rattling good read. At first I wondered if the translation was smoothly and effectively done, but I soon forgot this, either because it got better, or because it ceased to matter. Our detective, Chief Superintendent Ferrara, is a cool customer, respected and successful. When it seems he has a serial killer on his hands, one moreover who has identified seven victims of whom he will be the seventh, he becomes less cool. Written by a real life police chief, this complex plot involves and convinces, and in the end, I simply had to get it finished before normal life could resume.

A Florentine Death is the first book of Michele Guittari's that I have read and I must say that I was impressed. Here is the summary from the book's blurb:

"Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara knows that the beautiful surface of his adopted city, Florence, hides dark undercurrents. When called in to investigate a series of brutal and apparently random murders, his intuition is confirmed. Distrusted by his superiors and pilloried by the media, Ferrara finds time running out as the questions pile up. Is there a connection between the murders and the threatening letters he has received? Are his old enemies, the Calabrian Mafia, involved? And what part is played by a beautiful young woman facing a heart-rending decision, a priest troubled show more by a secret from his past, and an American journalist fascinated by the darker side of life? Ferrara confronts the murky underbelly of Florence in an investigation that will put not only his career but also his life on the line."
I do not normally care for the police procedural or serial killer mystery sub-genres but the cultural aspects of life in Florence intrigued me and held my interest. Our killer is gruesome with his victiim's bodies and eventually targets officer Ferrara for his/her final murder. The police are unable to connect the victims and do not make much progress in finding the perp. It all washes out at the end but it would have been nice if some of the red herrings were gradually explained away. A secondary plot about a graduate student and a journalist is interesting but I did not feel that it was connected enough to the main plot line. If this novel did not take place in Florence, I probably would not have liked it at all. show less

This was an engaging police thriller from the former head of the Florence police force, the writing becomes more assured as the story goes along and is ultimately gripping as the head of the Florence police goes up against a serial killer with a personal grudge against him.

I can't say I enjoyed this one much. At first it was just the language that got to me - after reading a few Booker prize winners, I found the whole "then this happened, then that happened, then something else happened" language clunky beyond belief, although I was willing to blame the translator for a while there. And the plot kept on introducing characters, and never really developing anything enough for my tastes, and jumped from one place to another, one character to another, and one time to another, all fairly clumsily done as well.

And then page 168 happened. Okay, a rape. Unpleasant, but I can deal. Only I couldn't deal with her reaction: "'It's possible,' she murmured, 'that I still love you.'"

And from then on, it'd take a miracle show more for me to like this book. I only stuck it out to the end to find out how it all linked back together.

The best bit was the author's note at the end, when we find out that he was an ex-cop who was involved with Mafia-busting and serial killers. But verisimilitude there isn't going to save the icky characters or clumsy plotting.

And why didn't Ferrera ever get worried for his wife, with death threats arriving at his house? And the whole homosexuality=bad theme running through it left a bad taste in my mouth. show less

A Florentine Death was originally published in Italian, but has been translated into English by Howard Curtis. I only found out at the end of the novel that the author is an Italian policeman who once was head of the Squadra Mobilia in Florence and was responsible for cracking a case known as The Monster of Florence and returned a Velazquez painting to a church from where it was stolen. Well, the main character is the head of the Squadra Mobilia in Florence, is also responsible for cracking a case called the Monster of Florence, returning a Velazquez painting to a church from where it was stolen and is called Michele Ferrara. Well, fancy that for coincidence!!

The story centres around a series of initially unconnected murders, where it show more turns out that all the victims were homosexual. Ferrera figures out that there is one killer, and that the killer has him firmly in his sights.

Giuttari was special advisor to the Italian PM on the matter of organised crime, so I presume that he's fairly famous in his neck of the woods. Maybe that explains how this novel got published. To be honest, it's fairly banal stuff with dull cardboard characters and cliched dialogue. It received wide acclaim in the Italian press, so maybe something got lost in translation. show less

Synopsis:Michele Ferara is the head of the Squadra Mobile in Florence. He has been active in tracking down the Monster of Florence and proving that the serial killer was really several killers working together. This case, however, is a serial killer and there doesn't seem to be much connection among the victims. The rest of the book is a police procedural.
Review: This is a first book and falters throughout. Once he gets over himself and actually starts telling a story, it's not bad.

Story of a grim serial killer determined to kill those responsible for his pack rape as a young boarding student. The motive is not revealed until the end. Along the way 2 young women fall victim to his visciousness. The police chief responsible for the investigation is challenged and pressured by higher authorities and his vulnerability is exposed at various episodes of the story.