Death
of a Dutchman
A
Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia Mystery
Magdalen
Nabb
Soho
Crime (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-482-6 (1569474826)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-482-2 (9781569474822)
Publication Date: December 2007
List Price: $12.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): Summoned by an aged woman to investigate mysterious noises in the vacant flat next to hers, Marshal Guarnaccia discovers a dying Dutch jeweler. The old lady had known him when he was a boy growing up in Florence. Could he have returned to the family home just to commit suicide? Or could the man be the victim of a cunning murderer?
Review:
The late Madgalen Nabb's Marshal Guarnaccia mysteries are being
reissued by Soho Crime. The second in the series, Death of a Dutchman,
was originally published in 1983.
The Marshal is visiting an old woman as part of his rounds, patiently
listening to her stories, when she remarks that she has heard noises
from an adjoining apartment, one presumed vacant. Upon knocking at the
door, he hears water running, breaks in and discovers the tenant, a
jeweler from The Netherlands, near death. Although help is summoned
immediately, the man dies, but not before uttering "It wasn't her."
Though the officials in the case are convinced the cause of death to be
a suicide, The Marshal isn't sure and conducts a quiet, but urgent,
investigation to determine who might have wanted to kill him before his
superiors close the book on the case.
Though Death
of a Dutchman was written
before computers and cell phones and when travel between countries in
Europe was far more complicated than it is today, it bears the timeless
quality of a good police procedural in which everything one needs to
know is determined by asking pertinent questions and listening to what
people say. The Marshal suspects something is awry here, and uses
gentle persuasion with the young Lieutenant responsible for the
investigation to get permission to continue to work on it. The
relationships that the Marshal has with his co-workers, his family, and
the people in his neighborhood, are quite endearing. When one of the
men in his station is inadvertently killed, the Marshal is devastated.
The personal approach he takes to everyone and everything is one of the
aspects of the book that make it so special.
The case is reasonably complicated and somewhat dependent on
idiosyncrasies of Italian law that may be unfamiliar to non-Italians,
but that doesn't lessen the appeal of how Marshal Guarnaccia goes about
piecing together the life of the Dutchman and the reasons someone may
have wanted him dead. The conclusion, whether or not the one person the
Marshal suspects of the crime gets away before the official paperwork
is sealed, is really quite thrilling.
Soho Crime is to be commended for reissuing and promoting the early
books in this series. They deserve a new audience of readers.
Special thanks to Soho Crime for providing a copy of Death of a Dutchman for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Death of a Dutchman? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Death
of
an
Englishman
Scribner (Hardcover), November 1982
ISBN-10: 0-684-17757-9 (0684177579)
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-17757-1 (9780684177571)
Death
of a Dutchman
Scribner (Hardcover), March 1983
ISBN-10: 0-684-17847-8 (0684178478)
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-17847-9 (9780684178479)
Death
in
Springtime
Scribner (Hardcover), May 1984
ISBN-10: 0-684-18133-9 (0684181339)
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-18133-2 (9780684181332)
Death
in
Autumn
Scribner (Hardcover), June 1985
ISBN-10: 0-684-18337-4 (0684183374)
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-18337-4 (9780684183374)
The
Marshal and
the Murderer
Scribner (Hardcover), December 1987
ISBN-10: 0-684-18884-8 (0684188848)
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-18884-3 (9780684188843)
The
Marshall and
the Madwoman
Scribner (Hardcover), December 1988
ISBN-10: 0-684-18984-4 (0684189844)
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-18984-0 (9780684189840)
The
Marshal's Own Case
Scribner (Hardcover), July 1990
ISBN-10: 0-684-19201-2 (0684192012)
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-19201-7 (9780684192017)
The
Marshal Makes His Report
HarperCollins (Hardcover), September 1992
ISBN-10: 0-06-016914-1 (0060169141)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-016914-5 (9780060169145)
The Marshal at the Villa Torrini
HarperCollins (Hardcover), July 1994
ISBN-10: 0-06-016915-X (006016915X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-016915-2 (9780060169152)
The
Monster of
Florence
Never published in the US
Property
of Blood
Soho Crime (Hardcover), September 2001
ISBN-10: 1-56947-251-3 (1569472513)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-251-4 (9781569472514)
Some
Bitter Taste
Soho Crime (Hardcover), October 2002
ISBN-10: 1-56947-317-X (156947317X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-317-7 (9781569473177)
The
Innocent
Soho Crime (Hardcover), October 2005
ISBN-10: 1-56947-414-1 (1569474141)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-414-3 (9781569474143)
Vita
Nuova
Soho Crime (Hardcover), June 2008
ISBN-10: 1-56947-493-1 (1569474931)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-493-8 (9781569474938)
Omnimystery
keywords for Death of a Dutchman
...
Location(s) referenced: Florence, Italy.
