Murder in Tuscany by T A Williams

An Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mystery

Murder in Tuscany introduces
detective Dan Armstrong

This first crime novel by T A Williams is set in the Tuscan hills above Florence and has many descriptions of the gorgeous scenery and local food and wine enjoyed by the characters.

Villa Volpone, the home of the best-selling crime novelist, Jonah Moore, is hosting a creative writing course, and among the 11 students are writers of erotic novels at various stages in their careers.  Some are established authors - ladies in their sixties, seventies and eighties - and some of the younger ones are yet to publish their first books.

Standing out from the other students is retired Detective Chief Inspector Dan Armstrong, who has still not finished his first novel, an historical murder mystery set in Florence. His former colleagues have paid for the course as a retirement present for him and have chosen the genre of erotica, either by mistake, or for a laugh.

Although he has misgivings about the focus of the course, Dan has been persuaded to participate anyway by his daughter, and he also feels in need of a holiday, having just parted from his wife after many years of marriage. He is looking forward to exploring Florence in his free time, to gather background material for his own book.

His host, Jonah Moore, turns out to be arrogant and unashamedly lecherous towards the younger women, and not many tears are shed after he is discovered in the dining room with his own Silver Dagger award sticking out of his chest.

Dan has already met the investigating officer in the case, Commissario Virgilio Pisano, who is a friend of one of his ex-colleagues. Pisano is keen to have Dan to help out with the investigation with his translation skills, and he also encourages him to share his own ideas about the murder, based on his long experience.

T A Williams, a romance author
with a taste for crime

Once you get into the novel you become more acquainted with the cast of characters, some of who are described at the beginning by Dan as ‘septuagenarians who are remarkably sprightly for their advancing years,’ which I thought might seem patronising to older readers who are active and still have careers. But nonetheless, Murder in Tuscany is an enjoyable read.

Dan is a likeable character and remarkably charitable towards his former wife, who despite having set up home with another man, has taken his house, car, and a large chunk of his pension away from him.

But the other star of the book is the villa’s black labrador, Oscar, who befriends Dan by knocking him into the pool and then remains by his side throughout the novel helping with the investigation.

The author, T A Williams, is the author of many romance novels set in Tuscany, and Murder in Tuscany, published in 2022 by Boldwood Books Limited, is a promising start to his crime series.

Dan, as a retired Detective Chief Inspector, is well set up to help the local police and investigate more intriguing cases, and I look forward to reading his adventures in the next book, Murder in Chianti.

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A Party in San Niccolò

A tale of dark deeds carried out against a backdrop of incredible beauty

Authors are praised by reviewers and readers if they describe the locations of their novels well, especially if they have chosen a famous city that is familiar to many people.

I have enjoyed many good novels set in Florence, but I don’t think I have ever appreciated the way an author has portrayed the city quite as much as I did while reading A Party in San Niccolò.

A Party in San Niccolò is a
crime novel set in Florence

Christobel Kent brings Florence to life in the novel and she reawakened many of my own memories of the city, reminding me that I also once went for an afternoon snack at Procacci in the Via de’ Tornabuoni and of the time when I first saw the Boboli gardens.

In A Party in San Niccolò, a young English woman, Gina, visits Florence for the first time and we see the city through her eyes. She is going to stay with an old friend, Jane, needing a rest from the demands of her husband and three young children.

Jane’s marriage to a handsome Italian architect, Niccolò, turns out not to be as perfect as it first seems and Gina also finds herself becoming involved in the problems of one of Niccolò’s daughters, Beatrice, who comes home in a state of shock after learning that her best friend has been found dead.

When Gina goes to Niccolò’s country villa for a few days, she makes an unpleasant discovery and soon finds herself in the midst of a murder investigation in the Tuscan countryside. She is helped by an English friend of the family, Frank, and although she is happily married, Gina finds herself drawn to him.

Throughout the whole novel we are told about a party due to happen at the end of the week to celebrate the birthday of Frances, one of the British expats in Florence.

As Gina and Frank uncover more evidence about the murder of Beatrice’s friend, the night of the party draws closer. Matters come to a head in a dazzling denouement as the characters meet up at the party, held in a beautiful garden in Florence that is evocatively described by Christobel Kent.

A Party in San Niccolò was Christobel Kent’s debut novel and was first published in 2003.

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A Death in Tuscany

A Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara novel by Michele Giuttari

Giuttari's novels are set in the historic and
atmospheric city of Florence

One thing you can rely on in a Michele Giuttari novel is that Italian police procedure will be accurately described. It is particularly fascinating for readers who enjoy crime novels set in Italy to see behind the scenes of an Italian police station and be on the inside of a major police investigation.

Michele Giuttari is well qualified to describe the way the Squadra Mobile (Flying Squad) unit of the Florence police operates as he once headed the unit himself when he was a serving officer in the Polizia di Stato.

This is the second novel in his series featuring Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara and the reader finds out more about the man behind the job title and his earlier life in Sicily as the case he is working on involves one of his oldest and dearest friends.

The novel begins with a young girl found unconscious and scantily dressed in remote countryside in the hills above Florence. She later dies in hospital and the cause of her death is put down to a drugs overdose. The hospital staff and some of the police assume she was a drug addict and probably a prostitute.

Michele Giuttari writes with authority as
a former serving police officer

But Chief Superintendent Ferrara is not so sure. For one thing the girl is very young, possibly between 13 and 15 years old. There is nothing on her body to identify her and no one has reported her missing.

Ferrara digs deeper and embarks on an investigation that soon throws up connections with some of the richest and most powerful people in Florence.

In the meantime, his old friend from Sicily, bookshop owner Massimo Verga, goes missing while staying on the Tuscan coast.

Ferrara and his wife, Petra, are extremely worried about the disappearance of Massimo and therefore Ferrara hands over the inquiry into the death of the unidentified girl to one of his colleagues so that he can try to find his friend.

The Carabinieri are handling the case and are working on the theory that his friend, Massimo, has absconded with his lover, a rich, beautiful businesswoman, after they have killed her ex-husband.

They resent Ferrara’s interference and put in a complaint about him, which results in his suspension from duty. But he is not content to leave the case to the Carabinieri and continues to investigate unofficially, with the help of his loyal team of officers and his good friend, Deputy Prosecutor Anna Giulietti.

It is a race against time to find Massimo before anything happens to him and also to prove he is innocent of the murder.

But Ferrara finds he is up against the Mafia and a gang of ruthless Albanian drugs bosses, as well as his own Commissioner, who is enraged both by his unorthodox behaviour and because he has fallen foul of the Carabinieri.

A Death in Tuscany is well plotted and gripping, with the solution to the crimes coming right at the end. The underlying themes of friendship and loyalty are neatly interwoven with the action.

 

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(Image of Florence by Mark Gilder from Pixabay)

The Marshal’s Own Case

A Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation by Magdalen Nabb
 

Marshall Guarnaccia investigates grisly
goings-on after dark in Florence

Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia’s superior officer in the Carabinieri, Captain Maestrangelo, puts him in charge of a murder case after a chopped up body is found in plastic bags on his territory.

It takes the Marshal away from his familiar world in the Carabinieri station at the Pitti Palace and plunges him into the nocturnal world of the transgender prostitutes operating in Florence.

For despite having breasts, the body which has been neatly sawn into pieces and dispersed between a number of plastic bags, turns out to be that of a man not a woman.

Despite observing that the Marshal never has much to say for himself, the Captain rates his ability and knows that the Marshal doesn’t miss much, as evidenced by his previous successes.

But the Marshal has to learn quickly, in order to operate within a community he has no experience of, and which seems a long way from the daily difficulties of tourists and their lost property and passports that he is used to.

He is dismayed when the Captain hands him a pile of files relating to previous murders of prostitutes and their clients in Florence, all of which are marked Unsolved.

Magdalen Nabb set 14
crime novels in Florence

But the Captain does assign to him one of his own men, Ferrini, a friendly and talkative officer, who knows his way around in the shadowy world of transgender prostitution.

Guarnaccia quickly develops some sympathy for the tragic men, who have had surgery and been given hormone treatments to make them look like women, so that they can satisfy the desires of their regular clients, who are usually seemingly respectable men living in Florence.

When Peppina, one of the transgender prostitutes, is arrested and locked in a cell, suspected of the murder of what turns out to be Lulu, one of her rivals, Guarnaccia believes she is not guilty of the crime.

He is so sure of Peppina’s innocence, despite the evidence against her, he insists on continuing his inquiries, even though he is urged to drop the investigation because the Prosecutor has said he is satisfied with the result.

Against a backdrop of other problems, with one of his two young sons not doing well at school and getting into trouble, and his wife urging him to look for the missing son of an acquaintance from back home in Sicily, he keeps going out at night in terrible weather to try to solve the crime to his own satisfaction.

His patience and tenacity pays off and he catches the real killer, strives to get the most lenient sentence for Peppina for other charges she is facing, and can then finally turn his attention to his own, troubled young son.

This is another compelling mystery by Magdalen Nabb, which exposes a shadowy part of life going on at night in the beautiful, historic city of Florence. 

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The Death of a Mafia Don

A Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara novel by Michele Giuttari

Looking along the Arno towards Ponte Vecchio in Florence,
the backdrop for Michele Giuttari's book

When a bomb explodes near Chief Superintendant Ferrara’s car in the centre of Florence, leaving the head of the Squadra Mobile injured, there is an urgent need to find out who was responsible to prevent further atrocities.

Ferrara is unconscious and in hospital so his loyal colleagues have to start the investigation without him.

There are conflicting theories. It could have been the work of Muslim extremists but it could also have been revenge by the Mafia for the imprisonment of their boss, Salvatore Laprua.

Soon after he regains consciousness, Ferrara discharges himself from hospital and goes straight back to his office to lead the inquiry.

It becomes even more personal for him when a second bomb goes off and his colleague and friend, Acting Prosecutor Anna Giulietti, is killed.

To add to the complications, Mafia boss Salvatore Laprua is then found dead in his prison cell.

This is a fast moving novel about potential terrorism and Mafia activity in Italy seen from the perspective of the security forces.

It shows the way the police and the Carabinieri work together and there is a realistic portrait of Florence as the backdrop, described by an author who was himself responsible for jailing several key Mafia figures while heading the Squadra Mobile in both Florence and Reggio Calabria.

The author, Giuttari, has been a special adviser to the interior minister in Rome with the remit  of monitoring Mafia activity.

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The Marshal and the Madwoman

A Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation by Magdalen Nabb

Magdalen Nabb's Marshal Guarnaccia novels are set
in the city of Florence

When a crazy, destitute old woman is found dead in her apartment with her head in the gas oven, the Marshal isn’t prepared immediately to accept that she committed suicide.

His instincts tell him that the woman has been murdered and he sets out in the August heat in Florence to investigate her death thoroughly.

But his enquiries only lead to him asking himself: why would anyone want to murder Clementina, a poor old woman who was obsessed with tidying and cleaning the streets of the district of Florence where she lived?

Nothing at all is known about her by the other residents living nearby and so the Marshal has to try to reconstruct her past.

Only when he discovers the terrible event that wrecked her life and led to her madness 25 years earlier during the big flood that engulfed Florence, the story of which is vividly recreated in the novel by Magdalen Nabb, does he discover the identity of her present day murderer.

Marshal Guarnaccia then has to use all his ingenuity and resources to track down the culprit and make sure that they don’t get away with it.

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The Marshal and the Murderer

A Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation by Magdalen Nabb 

The Marshall is asked to investigate the disappearance of a Swiss girl staying in Florence, who has been learning pottery-making in a nearby village.

And when her body is found outside a ceramics factory in the village, the local Marshal is keen for Guarnaccia to stay and help out with the murder investigation.

The two Carabinieri officers find it frustrating that no one in the village seems to want to help them find the killer. They are met with a wall of silence and are convinced they are not being told the whole truth about the girl’s movements on the day she was murdered.

The breakthrough comes when they speak to a retired doctor about the grim events that took place in the village during the German occupation in the early 1940s.

Marshall Guarnaccia finally begins to see a pattern emerge, but puts his own life at risk when he goes to confront the murderer.

Magdalen Nabb tells the compelling story well and shows the reader life in a part of Tuscany that tourists seldom visit, drawing on her own knowledge of the ceramics industry she herself had worked in.

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(Picture of Florence by Helena Volpi from Pixabay)

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Death in Autumn

A Marshal Guarnaccia investigation by Magdalen Nabb

Marshal Guarnaccia’s instincts come to be heavily relied upon by his Carabinieri captain during a difficult investigation into the murder of a lonely German woman living in Florence.

The woman’s body had been found floating in the River Arno clad only in a fur coat and jewellery.

The Marshal’s big, slightly protuding eyes notice everything and he soon works out who is lying to him when he makes his enquiries at the hotel in he city where she had been living for the last 15 years and at the villa she owned in Greve in Chianti.

He is intrigued to find out she had become friends with the night porter at the hotel and he is also suspicious of the young people who are renting the villa from her.

The Captain is glad to follow the Marshal’s intuition in this complex case. He and his men are already stretched by an operation to track down the dealers at the centre of the drugs trade in the city that has recently led to the deaths of two young people and he is feeling pressurised by the Substitute Prosecutor to get a quick result in the murder case.

Magdalen Nabb brings the streets and squares of Florence alive in this clever, well-written mystery, which keeps the reader guessing till the end.

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Death in Springtime

A Marshal Guarnaccia mystery by Magdalen Nabb

 

Magdalen Nabb's story begins in late winter in
Marshal Guarnaccia's home city of Florence

When a wealthy American student is kidnapped in Florence with one of her college friends, the Carabinieri move swiftly to try to find her before she comes to any harm.

English-speaking Lieutenant Bacci tries to win the confidence of the girl’s friend after she is released by the kidnappers and found wandering in the countryside.

And Captain Maestrangelo and a new Substitute Prosecutor organise a massive operation to search the part of the Tuscan hills where the confused girl was discovered.

But it is Marshal Guarnaccia’s enquiries on his own patch near Palazzo Pitti, the area of the city where the American girl had been staying, that yield the clues that eventually lead to the kidnappers.

Magdalen Nabb tells the story cleverly, paving the way towards an outcome that is completely unexpected.

The story begins on the first of March with snow falling in Florence, which provides a big distraction for the local people at the time the young women are kidnapped.

And Death in Springtime ends with such a surprise that it will give the reader something to think about long after they have finished the last page.

(Image by Mark Gilder from Pixabay)

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A Florentine Death

The first Michele Ferrara mystery by Michele Giuttari

This novel will fascinate any readers who might wish to learn about the methods or see into the minds of the Italian police.

The hero, Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, is the head of the Squadra Mobile in Florence.

He is the creation of a former police chief, Michele Giuttari, who headed the police in Florence between 1995 and 2003 and can therefore write with authority about murder investigations, interviewing suspects and organising armed police operations.

As well as providing an authentic account of police procedure in a multiple murder investigation, Giuttari delivers a cleverly plotted mystery that becomes increasingly more gripping as it reaches its dramatic conclusion.

Anyone who loves Florence will enjoy the setting and perhaps appreciate Giuttari’s portrayal of the beauty and the occasional darkness of everyday life in the city.

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(Picture by Liliy2025 from Pixabay)

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Death of a Dutchman

A Marshal Guarnaccia mystery

In the heat of the summer in Florence, the Marshal embarks on a single-handed mission to bring a person to justice for murder.

He had been called out to investigate after an old lady heard suspicious noises coming from a neighbouring apartment and after gaining entrance he had discovered a dying man.

The victim was a young Dutch jeweller who occasionally used the apartment when he visited Florence on business. Although the officers called in to investigate the death come to the conclusion that he has committed suicide, the Marshal has misgivings.

He makes a few unofficial enquiries of his own and eventually has a suspect in his sights. Unable to intervene officially, and conscious that the murderer will get away with it if he doesn’t do anything, the Marshal embarks on an exhausting pursuit of his quarry throughout the city, hoping to uncover the proof that he needs.

It is an intriguing and absorbing story revealing Magdalen Nabb’s detailed knowledge of Florence. It should come as no surprise that the novelist Georges Simenon referred to Death of a Dutchman as ‘a masterpiece’. 

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(Florence picture by Makalu from Pixabay)

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Death in August

The first Inspector Bordelli mystery by Marco Vichi

Florence during the summer of 1963 is the setting for this evocative story featuring the weary, disillusioned and constantly nostalgic, Inspector Bordelli.

The Commissario is one of the few policemen left working in the heat of the city, which has been deserted by the residents in favour of the more refreshing atmosphere at the coast or in the hills.

Bordelli has to lead an inquiry into the death of a wealthy woman living in a hilltop villa and is helped by a young Sardinian officer who turns out to be the son of one of his former wartime comrades. 

They soon realise that the lady was murdered and start to suspect members of her family were involved.

But proving what actually happened isn’t easy and Bordelli’s frustration is made worse by the heat, the mosquitoes, his constant and vivid memories of combat with the Germans and his hankering for the cigarettes he knows are so bad for him.

Things are made more bearable for him by his kind and loyal friends. Many of them are former criminals and prostitutes and one of them is a brilliant and inventive cook.

Summer in Italy in the 1960s is brought alive by this entertaining novel by Marco Vichi, originally published in Italian as Il Commissario Bordelli and then translated into English by Stephen Sartarelli.

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(Image by Rolanas Valionis from Pixabay)

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Death of an Englishman

The first Marshal Guarnaccia novel by Magdalen Nabb

Florence in the run up to Christmas is skilfully presented to us by Magdalen Nabb as the setting for this novel. 

She doesn't just portray the famous city crammed full of art treasures that is so popular with  tourists, but instead gives an insider's view of what it is like to live in an apartment in one of the big old palaces, either as an ex-pat Brit or a working Italian.

She lets us see the city from an interesting variety of viewpoints. There is the Carabinieri officer, Marshal Guarnaccia, a Sicilian who is homesick for his island and misses his wife and family. We also see Florence through the eyes of two English detectives who have arrived to work alongside the Carabinieri on the investigation and we get an insight into the thoughts of the new recruit, the Florentine officer, Carabiniere Bacci.

The novel starts with the discovery of the body of an elderly Englishman in his ground floor apartment. Despite the circumstances in which he seems to have been living, he turns out to be well-connected and from an upper class background.

The Marshal is ill in bed with the flu and his junior officer, Bacci, has to work under his direction while also acting as an interpreter for the Carabinieri captain with the English detectives.  But it is the Sicilian marshal who shows the deepest understanding of the personalities involved and uncovers the shocking truth.

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(Image by djedj from Pixabay)     

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