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Property of blood / Magdalen Nabb.

By: Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: German Series: Marshal Guarnaccia ; 11.Publication details: London : Heinemann, 2004, c1999.Description: 248 pages ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0434011940
  • 0434010529 :
Uniform titles:
  • Alta moda. English
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Large Print Davis (Central) Library Large Print Large Print NAB 2 Available T00307023
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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 Guanaccia by her daughter, who may been the intended victim.Kidnapping is almost a second business for the Sardinians nominally engaged in raising sheep in the Tuscan Hills. The 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 victims go free.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?

Originally published: New York : SOHO, 2001.

Translation from the German.

7 11 89 98 122 135

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Marshal Guarnaccia, featured in some ten previous titles, investigates the kidnap-for-ransom of an American-born countess in Florence. With a low-key narrative and protagonist but effective nonetheless. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Elegant is the word for Nabb's (The Monster of Florence; The Marshal at the Villa Torrini; etc.) 11th Salvatore Guarnaccia psychological police procedural elegant in style and elegant of mind. Guarnaccia, marshal of the carabinieri, finds clues in the way people behave. His colleagues appreciate his talents, but tend to keep him on the sidelines of any investigation. For them, his greatest talent is in dealing with difficult people, questioning those reluctant to speak, calming those who refuse to be calmed. The unpretentious Sicilian sleuth, whose adopted city is Florence, has a gift for inspiring trust and encouraging others to confide in him. He also has a home life that includes a loving wife who nags him and two kids who give him problems. He is endearingly absent-minded. In the present tale, an American-born woman, Countess Olivia Brunamonti, has been kidnapped by a band of professional thugs. Italian law forbids the paying of ransom, and the family does not report the kidnapping for a week, deepening Olivia's danger. In addition, the gang has left a false trail to a rival clan. Time, as they say, is running out. Olivia is a wonderful character. Her graphic account of her ordeal, which runs intermittently throughout the book, gives the reader a perspective on the physical and psychological seriousness of her situation. Nabb, an Englishwoman who has lived in Florence since 1975, is a fine writer with a sharp intelligence and deep sensitivity to human pain and frailty. (Sept. 18) FYI: The first title in the Marshal Guarnaccia series, Death of an Englishman (1982), will be reissued in paperback simultaneously. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Mysteries set in Italy have become a hot item in the last several years, with series by Michael Dibdin, Donna Leon, and others garnering the lion's share of the attention. But before Dibdin's Aurelio Zen or Leon's Guido Brunetti, there was Magdalen Nabb's Salvatore Guarnaccia, a Sicilian officer of the carbiniere stationed in Florence. Nabb's series, which began in 1982, returns with its eleventh installment starring the unpretentious, Columbo-like Marshal Guarnaccia, who says little but sees much. When an American-born countess is kidnapped by mistake (her daughter was the intended victim), Guarnaccia must contend not only with tracking the kidnappers but also with avoiding roadblocks constructed by the victim's dysfunctional family. Modestly claiming his incompetence to handle such a high-profile case, Guarnaccia stumbles forward, relying on his powers of observation and sensitivity to the nuances of personality. He is a thoroughly endearing character, but Nabb's portrayals of the kidnappers and the victim are equally compelling, as is the glimpse she provides of the "kidnapping industry" in Italy. Fans of crime Italian style who don't know this series are in for a treat. --Bill Ott

Kirkus Book Review

Once again employing the pared-down skills of a Simenon, Nabb's 11th outing for Florence's Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia demonstrates that the carabinieri's best investigative technique is silence. Watching, waiting, and intuiting, he listens to edgy Caterina Brunamonti confess that her mother, the beautiful Contessa, a former international model and the widow of the late Count, was kidnapped ten days before, and that her migraine-prone brother Leonardo did not want to involve the police or the prosecutor's office. Instead, they've turned to family lawyer Patrick Hines, who's called in a private eye. But still the family's had no contact with the kidnappers-or proof that the Contessa still lives. Narrowing the villains to two rival Tuscan bandits, the dreaded Salis and the despicable Puddu, Guarnaccia finds the Contessa's car, her beaten doggy, and indications she's been kept in a cave on Salis's property-but suggestions as well that this scenario might be a frame-up by Puddu. Furthermore, young Caterina, negotiating with the press, firing her mother's staff, wresting control of her mother's design business from her brother, is spinning wildly out of control. Meantime, the Contessa, exhibiting traits of the Stockholm Syndrome, allies herself with one of her captors and is shocked beyond depression at newspaper versions of her children's actions, preparing for a resolution that bodes ill for the future of the Brunamontis. A multidimensional view of Italy's kidnapping laws, the ways around them, and the greed that destroys some families while love and unspoken understanding succors others. As well-written and emotionally acute as The Monster of Florence (1997).

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