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| The Monster of Florence | 
 enlarge | Author: Douglas Preston
Creator: Mario Spezi
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
Buy Used: $11.00
You Save: $14.99 (58%)
New (50) Used (34) Collectible (9) from $11.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  100 reviews
Sales Rank: 696
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0446581194
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1523
EAN: 9780446581196
ASIN: 0446581194
Publication Date: June 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Incompetant June 11, 2008
21 out of 158 found this review helpful
This book is so childishly written with too many mistakes. There is no American Embassy in Florence only a Consulate. The author repeats himself over and over again and has completely forgotten the use of pronouns. What could have been an exciting book is just plain boring.
 A gripping and disturbing read June 16, 2008
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
Beginning in 1974 and continuing to 1985 a series of gruesome murders took place near Florence, Italy. Usually murdering the young men first, the killer would then kill the young women at his leisure and then mutilate the body. Though the police sought to catch the Monster of Florence, the name given to the killer, they made little head way. Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist, covered the crimes and was witness to the police incompetence surrounding the murder investigation.
In 2000 American author Douglas Preston moved himself and his family to a small 14th century farm house literally across the road from an ancient olive grove near Florence. Little did they know the background of that charming olive grove. Settling themselves into the local life, the Preston family thought they'd found the ultimate happiness; after all, it had been their shared dream of moving to Italy. That is, until Douglas Preston became involved with Mario Spezi and the murder investigation of the Monster of Florence. On their own, Spezi and Preston pursued their own line of investigation ultimately leading to a confrontation with a person they suspected of the murders. Without giving away to bank, in the end both Preston and Spezi become suspects in the killings; Spezi is suspected of being the killer, and Preston with aiding and abetting. Preston was told in a pretty direct manner to get out of town or else. Spezi wasn't that lucky.
The Monster of Florence has everything you could ask for in a nonfiction murder story. Its all here. The Monster of Florence is also a window into the Italian police processes and very enlightening.
I highly recommend.
Peace always.
 Not as good as I had hoped June 24, 2008
15 out of 20 found this review helpful
I'm a huge Agent Pendergast fan, so I eagerly purchase anything written by Child and/or Preston. This one, however, is just OK. It's not horrible, but it's also not a page turner like their novels. This gets bogged down in a lot of detail and a zillion names - you need a score card to keep track of all of the "characters" who walk in and out of the action. No doubt, it is a fascinating story - truth is surely stranger than fiction. What I will remember most is the absolute dysfunction of the Italian legal/judicial system - which is one thing that makes this a weighty read. Last night, I did something I have never done with one of Preston's or Child's books. Although I had another third of the book to read, I skipped to the end, read the last few pages, and I moved on to another book.
Best thing about this book: the insight into the Italian people & culture June 20, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
I'll try not to repeat here what others have written.
The account of the murders and Spezi's decades-long investigation is quite compelling, but by far the most surprising thing to me was the insight the book offers into Italy and the Italians. In this book you see a dramatic demonstration of how British and American views of Tuscany (A Room With a View, Under the Tuscan Sun, etc., etc.) are mainly about Brits and Americans frolicking through lovely towns, villages, and sunny hillsides. Such books and movies may be superficially charming, but they don't reveal the first thing about the Italians.
What Preston and Spezi have accomplished here is quite remarkable. This book falls solidly within the "true crime" genre, but what you get is so much greater. The story proceeds with a steady accumulation of events, facts, and clues. But the deeper you get into the book, the more this story is punctuated by insights by articulate, dispassionate Italians -- observers of their own people, their fallibility, gullibility, dishonesty, dark motives, and on and on. -- The cumulative effect is revelatory, difficult to convey in a brief review.
If you read this book, by the end you will be so grateful that you live in a country with a bill of rights, a truly free press, and a court system that, however flawed, works better than most.
To sum up: This book offers a terrific account of some horrifying murders, but also a stunning peek under the hood of Italy today. -- I, for one, had no idea.
Highly recommended.
An extraordinary indictment of the Italian legal system July 11, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
When Douglas Preston moved his family to the outskirts of Florence in 2000, he thought he was just going to enjoy la dolce vita and write a mystery novel. What he found was both more interesting and scarier than any story he could have come up with on his own. As he was interviewing a journalist named Mario Spezi who was an expert on the Italian legal system, Spezi casually mentioned that just outside the villa Preston and his family had rented, was the site of one of the most gruesome murders in Florentine history. There, in 1983, the famed Monster of Florence had taken the lives of two of his victims.
Slowly Preston found himself getting pulled into the mystery of the Monster of Florence, who had between the years of 1974 and 1985 killed at least 7 couples as they made love in various out-of-the-way places in the Tuscan hills. Various men had been tried and convicted of the crimes, but the cases did not offer compelling proof and Spezi believed that the killer or killers were still free. Preston joined Spezi in trying to find the real killer, but what neither of them could have known was that they themselves were going to be charged crimes in connection with the case. In Italy, important magistrates don't appreciate being shown up by the press and Preston and Spezi showed up the flaws in the Monster investigation. What starts out as a murder mystery soon turns to much much more -- a chilling indictment of the Italian legal system and the lack of freedom of the press in Italy.
Preston and Spezi bring the people and places involved to life. The writing is crisp, the story well laid out and the implications of the abuse of government and suppression of a free press in a first world country shocking and important. So... Come for the monster, come for Florence, but stay for the journalists, who are much more interesting in the end.
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