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 an a copy of Death of a Dutchman for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
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.