Some Bitter Taste - Softcover

Magdalen Nabb

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786254181 ISBN 13: 9780786254187

Publisher: Thorndike Press, 2003

Synopsis

Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia is a decent policeman who meant to follow up on Signora Sara Hirsch's complaint that an intruder had been in her apartment. But by the time he's dealt with the other cases handed to him at that moment, the signora has been murdered.

About this title

About the Author:

Magdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire and trained as a potter. In 1975, she left her old life behind and moved with her son to Florence, where she fell in love with the local setting. Her Marshal Guarnaccia series, which has been translated into ten languages, was inspired by a real local marshal she befriended in the tiny pottery town of Montelupo Fiorentino. Nabb wrote children’s fiction and crime novels until her death in 2007.

From Publishers Weekly:

Fans of George Simenon's Inspector Maigret will find much to like in Nabb's 12th police procedural (after 2001's Property of Blood) to feature Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia. A native of Sicily taken with the charms of his adopted Florence, Guarnaccia has earned the trust of its residents at all social levels as well as the high regard of his commanding officer, Captain Maestrangelo, at Borgo Ognissanti Headquarters. After an intruder breaks into Sara Hirsch's apartment but steals nothing, the frightened, impoverished spinster goes to the Palazo Pitti Station of the Florence Carabinieri for the marshal's help. When a wealthy English art collector is robbed of some silver brushes, possibly by a member of his palace staff, the two incidents seem unconnected, as does the subsequent murder of an Albanian prostitute. The marshal insists that he isn't a detective, but he shows himself to be a careful observer as he untangles multiple mysteries through insight into the Florentine community. While deferring to his superiors, Guarnaccia puts together the seemingly unrelated parts of a large picture they fail to see. Glimpses of our hero's family and home life, plus his reactions to the oppressive summer heat of the lovingly evoked setting, add to his humanity. The several subplots may tie together somewhat improbably in the end, but Nabb's elegant style and sensitivity to character more than compensate.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0786254181
• ISBN 13: 9780786254187
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 289