Death in Springtime

3rd in the Marshal Guarnaccia series.

A young American student is kidnapped in broad daylight in March, during an unusual snowstorm that so distracts the Florentines that the Marshal can not find anyone who witnessed the crime. The kidnapped woman’s friend, another foreign student, is released with a message for the victim’s parents. Because kidnapping is practically an industry with the Sardinians who occupy the hills surrounding Florence, the carabinieri are well-versed in hostage technique and the difficult job of getting the victim back—alive.

This, then, is the setting. What follows is a fascinating look at Sardinian culture as lived on the mainland, in the mountains around Florence. Enlivening the book no end is the cast of show more characters. Carrabiniere Bacci appears once again, as his English language skills come in handy in communicating with the kidnapped woman’s friend (with the predictable result that he half falls in love with the young woman). A new substitute Prosecutor from Milan is hardly cast in the usual mode, and his cigars and comments add a great deal to the story. Carabinieri life outside the urban area is explored for what it is—getting to know the people, all the details of their lives and habits, the countryside counterpart to Guarnaccia’s (himself from a Sicilian peasant family) urban obsession with serving the “ordinary” people of his Quarter. Captain Maestrangelo, ever more respectful of Guarnaccia’s intuitive talents, adds his usual efficient, somber presence. And the Stockholm Syndrome makes its appearance.

The understated writing, the fully-realized characters, and believable plots, as well as the very evocative setting in Florence set this series far and above the ordinary in police procedurals. This one is no exception—it is a real page-turner quietly building up suspense until you are racing through at he end to see the well-thought out denouement.

Highly recommended. show less

The first I’ve read, this is the third novel in Nabb’s series of police procedurals set around Florence and featuring Marshal Guarnaccia. I was recommended this series by friend LizF who kindly sent me this one to get me started. Nabb, who died in 2007, wrote fourteen novels in the series which started back in 1981.

It’s March in Florence and snowing. With the unusual weather, no-one notices the abduction of two foreign language students. One is later released with a message for the girl’s parents, but won’t talk. The carabinieri suspect the Sardinian shepherds who live in the hills above the city, most local kidnappings are down to them, but they don’t have much information to go on. Leading the case is Captain Maestrangelo show more and his team, working with a new Prosecutor to get the girl back alive, before the girl’s father can pay the ransom. The Captain believes they’re dealing with amateurs this time, and that the girl will die unless they get to her first.

Although the Carabinieri are structured quite differently from our police, they go about finding the missing girl in much the same way – particularly in that there’s no substitute for local knowledge. Knowing your patch like the back of your hand, what goes on in it, and who does what is essential to their policework as the Marshal and other team members are well aware. Of the other characters, the young Carabiniere Bacci, proves very useful as an English speaker, teasing information out of the released girl; and the new prosecutor, whom the Captain always refers to as the Substitute, is a lively sort who brings a little cheer to this rather serious novel. The Marshal is, this time, a supporting character to the double-act of the Captain and the Substitute, but from his few appearances, you know you will like him – an older policeman with the intuition of experience. What is most surprising is the poverty that the Sardinians live in up there, no wonder the sons grow up wanting to get out of this close-knit community and choose crime as an easy route to money.

We see little of tourists’ Florence in this novel, the city locations are mostly those of workers, as are those in the hillsides – no-one ever said a shepherd’s life was easy. The policework is thorough and solid, like the novel itself which is rather serious. We don’t learn anything about the policemen’s private lives here, it’s all about the case, unlike those of Donna Leon where Comissario Brunetti’s family co-star, and Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano where food and his girlfriend play second fiddle, along with their locations in both cases. I am definitely interested in reading more of the series though and in particular, getting to meet the Marshal properly. (7/10) I was given this book. show less

Georges Simenon wrote a letter to his "friend and fellow author," Magdalen Nabb, saying this book "...is the first time I have seen the theme of kidnapping treated so simply and so plausibly." The letter is published at the beginning of the book, where one might expect a Preface.

With good reason. Her main character of the series, Marshal Guarnaccia, plays a small role in this book, but the Sardinian shepherds, the Substitute Prosecutor, Captain whose case it is, the young foreign students, the father of the young woman who was kidnapped, her step-mother, and many more characters are wonderfully drawn and believable.

I just didn't comprehend the ending of this book.

There was a kidnapping of two young women, one was let go with the note the other kept hostage.

There were drug related deaths and a murder...all interrelated, but the Family connection wasn't delved into enough, nor was the ending satisfying.....

This book fell quite short.

Very good straigh forward Simenon like procedural.

Feinsinnig psychologisch.