Property Of Blood

'Credible, classy and compelling, this is crime fiction at its best' Sunday Times

Credible, classy and compelling, this is crime fiction at its best

Marshal Salva Guarnaccia...is one of the most endearing and believable creations in modern crime fiction... One of the kindest but wisest of sleuths, he is an excellent counterpoint to Nabb's sinister imagination... An eerily haunting thriller whose low-key telling makes its Jacobean plot all the more disturbing.

Guarnaccia is in some ways, perhaps, the most impressive of all fictional Italian detectives... The intrigue is absorbing, and the Florentine background brilliantly portrayed... We fans...are as fascinated by his diet as by his deductions.

Magdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire in 1947. She has lived in Florence since 1975 and pursues a dual career as crime writer and children's author.

Olivia, an American-born model, married Count Ugo Brunamonti, a feckless, soon impoverished aristocrat. After his death, she supported her children by starting a fashion house which has prospered. When she is kidnapped, the crime is reported to Marshal Guarnaccia by her daughter, who may have been the intended victim. 
 
Kidnapping is almost a second business for the Sardinians nominally engaged in raising sheep in the Tuscan hills. They inhabit a vast wilderness where a victim can be hidden away forever, and where those searching for her will be quickly spotted. The government's official policy is not to permit the payment of ransom. But if the money isn't paid, the kidnappers cannot let their victim go free. It would set a bad example. 
 
In this case, Guarnaccia suspects another problem. Can it be that Olivia's children are unwilling to pay the ransom? Is this more than a random crime?

Vita Nuova

The final Marshal Guarnaccia novel from acclaimed crime writer Magdalen Nabb 
 
'Credible, classy and compelling, this is crime fiction at its best' Sunday Times

Vita Nuova is a skilfully plotted mystery which shows Guarnaccia at his most vulnerable ... a splendid addition to this enjoyable series.

[there is] much to enjoy, combining a tale of dark family secrets with an exposé of sex trafficking to produce a classic crime puzzle with touching flashes of insight into human nature.

Magdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire in 1947. She moved to Florence in 1975 and pursued a dual career as crime writer and children's author. She passed away in August 2007.

When Marshal Guarnaccia is called upon to investigate the murder of a young woman he is convinced that there's more to the family than meets the eye, and wonders if the girl's father, Paoletti, might have had something to do with her death. 
 
Enlisting the help of a local journalist, Marshal Guarnaccia's investigations draw him into the seedy underworld of Florence - lap dancing, prostitution and the illegal human trafficking of Eastern European women who are sold into the sex trade. But can he save these women before it's too late, and what do they have to do with the killing of Daniela Paoletti? Distracted by the plight of these women and the murder investigation, Guarnaccia forgets about his own personal problems; but it's not long before he has choices to make - should he seek help and risk exposing himself and possibly losing his job, or should he go it alone?

The Innocent

The unputdownable new Marshal Guarnaccia novel, from the acclaimed 'Donna Leon of Florence'. 
 
'Credible, classy and compelling, [Nabb] is crime fiction at its best' Sunday Times

It is spring in Florence and everyone around Marshal Guarnaccia seems to be in love, even his own son. The case he is working on, the murder of a young woman, seems to present no particular problems. No distressed parents, no political or influential connections, no pressure from the media. The investigation takes him only a few steps from home, to the Boboli gardens and to the artisans' quarter - where he knows everybody and everybody knows him. The locals also trust him - until he seems to be accusing one of them... 
 
Then everything changes. A second death follows and Guarnaccia is convinced that it is his fault. The case becomes one of the most distressing he's ever had to handle. Burdened with guilt, he finds it impossible to trust his own instincts any more...But he has to learn to do so before he can get at the truth...

Some Bitter Taste

Magdalen Nabb's latest in her acclaimed series of Marshal Guarnaccia mysteries. Nabb does for Florence what Donna Leon does for Venice, showing us the murky realities behind the stunning tourist exteriors.

Magdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire in 1947 and trained as a potter. She has lived in Florence since 1975, where she pursues a dual career as crime writer and children's author.

When it comes to motives for crime, the past can never be forgotten.    Sara Hirsch is a nervous elderly spinster who still lives in the flat above a long-standing Florentine antiquities shop in which she was raised. Frightened, she calls Marshal Guarnaccia for help, sure that strangers have been in her apartment. The marshal knows she is a lonely old woman but he is preoccupied with an investigation into an Albanian prostitution ring. Before he can respond to her latest alarm, she is found dead.    The marshal's search for the villains who precipitated her death brings him into confrontation with the past, with Jewish refugees from fascism, and with English expatriates, including the ailing heir to the elegant Villa L'Uliveto, Sir Christopher Wrothesly-

The Monster Of Florence

A chilling, gripping and perceptive novel based on the real-life case of a Florentine serial killer, from the highly acclaimed Magdalen Nabb ('Credible, classy and compelling, this is crime fiction at its best' Sunday Times).

'Nabb's account of the details is freshly horrifying, as are many of the characters who people the book. The vicious, incestuous suspect is...so vivid on the page that the reader feels the need of a shower after each of his many appearances... One of the many wonderful things about this book is the impossibility of distinguishing between fact and fiction, but that is, after all, the nature of justice in Italy.'

'A haunting thriller where past and present collide, where ambition brutalises those who have most need of compassion and where lies are often more credible that truth'

Marshal Guarnaccia of the Florence carabinieri is first puzzled and then irritated when he is dragged into a last-ditch attempt to nail the Monster, a vicious serial killer who has ritually slaughtered seven courting couples in the most brutal of circumstances. But he is soon sucked into the horror and squalor of a multi-layered case that has confounded the authorities for over ten years. So when a case is made out against the wrong man - a monster in his own right who beats his wife and sexually abuses his daughter - who is going to admit it? Summoning the courage to speak out, the Marshal rapidly realises that no one wants to listen. It is more comfortable for everyone, even the wrongly accused man, if the blood-soaked vineyards keep their secret of what really happened on the Saturday nights of the new moon...

Death Of A Dutchman

Classic Italian crime fiction by the Donna Leon of Florence, the acclaimed Magdalen Nabb ('Credible, classy and compelling, this is crime fiction at its best' Sunday Times).

'Credible, classy and compelling, this is crime fiction at its best'

'The intrigue is absorbing, and the Florentine background brilliantly portrayed... We fans...are as fascinated by [Guarnaccia's] diet as by his deductions.'

'A perfect example of crime-and-pleasure... so cunningly plotted that it is only at the end that you realise that not one strand of the intricate tapestry has been superfluous...'

There was enough trouble around to keep the police busy for months. All over Florence tourists were being robbed, cars stolen, and somewhere in the city terrorists were quietly at work. So the suicide of a Dutch jeweller looked like an open and shut case. Certainly there were some slight discrepancies. But the only witnesses were a blind man, and an old woman given to vicious lying. Yet the Marshal felt uneasy - it was all so conveniently simple...

Magdalen Nabb

'Magdalen Nabb's books are set in a Florence so vividly brought to life that I long to go back there after reading each one.'

'Guarnaccia is one of fiction's most satisfying detectives, a man whose domestic life is as fascinating as his cases- the series began with Death of an Englishman and is distinguished by its superb sense of place'

Magdalen Nabb's elegant and atmospheric Marshal Guarnaccia books, set in Florence, get steadily more impressive as her police marshal, a modest detective and unlikely hero, grows in complexity.

It takes a writer as good as Magdalen Nabb to remind us how subtle the art of the mystery can be. She does make it look easy, though.

When the body of Buongianni Corsi is found lying face down in the courtyard of the Palazzo Ulderighi there seems no doubt in the minds of his family that his death was an accident. The Marchesa, wife of the dead man, will entertain no other possibility and her power and status in the city means that Marshal Guarnaccia questions at his peril. But question he does. 
 
The death could have been suicide, or even murder. Guarnaccia knows something is not quite right, and resents being expected to go along with any possible cover up. The Palazzo is a maze of passageways, darkened corridors, locked rooms and something else, a family secret. Can he ignore his instincts and his integrity? Should he press on with the case, risk his job, and maybe more? As he paces the courtyard of the Palazzo, he is haunted by the strange piano and flute music that filters down from above, as well as by the irresistible conviction that something truly sinister has happened there...

Magdalen Nabb

Praise for The Marshal Makes His Report

'Magdalen Nabb's books are set in a Florence so vividly brought to life that I long to go back there after reading each one.'

'Guarnaccia is one of fiction's most satisfying detectives, a man whose domestic life is as fascinating as his cases- the series began with Death of an Englishman and is distinguished by its superb sense of p ...

Magdalen Nabb's elegant and atmospheric Marshal Guarnaccia books, set in Florence, get steadily more impressive as her police marshal, a modest detective and unlikely hero, grows in complexity.

'Magdalen Nabb's books are set in a Florence so vividly brought to life that I long to go back there after reading each one.'

'Guarnaccia is one of fiction's most satisfying detectives, a man whose domestic life is as fascinating as his cases- the series began with Death of an Englishman and is distinguished by its superb sense of p ...

Magdalen Nabb's elegant and atmospheric Marshal Guarnaccia books, set in Florence, get steadily more impressive as her police marshal, a modest detective and unlikely hero, grows in complexity.

'Magdalen Nabb's books are set in a Florence so vividly brought to life that I long to go back there after reading each one.'

'Guarnaccia is one of fiction's most satisfying detectives, a man whose domestic life is as fascinating as his cases- the series began with Death of an Englishman and is distinguished by its superb sense of p ...

Magdalen Nabb's elegant and atmospheric Marshal Guarnaccia books, set in Florence, get steadily more impressive as her police marshal, a modest detective and unlikely hero, grows in complexity.

Books by Magdalen Nabb

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter