Culture Watch
THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE
By Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi © 2008
Published by Grand Central
Lovers of mysteries, journalists and fans of Italian culture will find this story fascinating, frustrating, and challenging. It tells of a series of grisly murders around the neighborhood of Florence and the ongoing efforts of police and carabinieri. There are references to other serial killings but these strange killings have their own trademarks.
The burden of the book is the peculiar and peculiarly Italianate responses of authority that have resulted in more than twenty-five years of futile efforts to bring the perpetrator before a tribunal. The psychology demonstrated in this meticulously recorded tale is not that of miscreants, though there’s plenty of that. Along the way, the reader is treated to a review of Renaissance and Sardinian history that helps formulate a convincing hypothesis.
There are maps, a time line and an index, all useful for keeping track of what happened to whom, when and where.
Worth the read, if only to serve as a cautionary tale.
