In 2000, writer Douglas Preston moved his family to a villa in Tuscany so he could work on a new mystery that would take place in Florence. Soon after, he discovers that a clearing near his new house was the scene of a gruesome double murder. The murder was attributed to the Monster of Florence, a serial killer who targeted young couples and was still at large. Preston abandons his novel and begins working on a nonfiction work about the Monster, teaming up with Mario […]
A diabolical and clever thriller
I write my reviews as I read. I’m sure most do it’s the only way to really express the nuances and little things you notice as you are reading, as opposed to trying to remember when the story is over. This partly explains why I’ve been mostly absent this year; my review file was lost when I moved computers and I can barely remember what I read this year, let alone what I thought about them. I had this review nearly ready to go with […]
The Italian police are just the worst.
I picked up The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi several times at my local used book store and the library before I actually bought it. The cover, which depicts a Renaissance sculpture, suggests that the “True Story” takes place at that time. In reality, the Monster of Florence murders occurred between 1968 and 1985, and were never solved. The scandalous killings of 16 people, each involved couples, murdered at local trysting spots amongst the hillsides around the city of Florence. Both […]
Uneven story undermines new Pendergast thriller, White Fire
This is the 13th of the Preston & Child novels to feature the enigmatic, brilliant Special Agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast and I think it’s time to give the man a well deserved break. Somewhere along the way, Preston & Child thrillers have become all about Pendergast to the detriment of the other characters in the series. After the harrowing and incredibly convoluted events of Two Graves, White Fire is a welcome break from the labyrinthine plotting that has plagued recent novels in the series. However […]