The Monster of Florence

by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi

Book Overview

In the nonfiction tradition of John Berendt (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) comes a gripping account of crime and punishment in the lush hills surrounding Florence, Italy, presented by a New York Times-bestselling author.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446581275
• ISBN13: 9780446581271
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Disappointed

I was very disappointed in this book. There were some interesting parts, but overall it was boring. I had to skip through to finish it and the end was a mess! I'll stick with Preston's Pendergast books. This is the 2nd book of Preston's I have read that is non-fiction and both were a waste of money. It's true that Italy's justice system was unable to solve the murders, but unfortunately, similar stories could be found in any country. I love Italy, having visited there many times. Are there problems with their justice system - yes! But have a look at ours folks!

Slow, gory, repetitious...

After awhile, I just got tired of reading about the next "possible monster" and why. It got boring and I gave up. First Preston book I can say that about - all his other books I've read are Five plus stars. Sorry Doug...

Best thing about this book: the insight into the Italian people & culture

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.

Could not put this book down.. recommend it highly...

I thought this book was great. Douglas Preston grabbed me and would not let me go until I almost passed out from lack of sleep. I finished this book in two days.. on my train commute, during my lunch break, in bed at 1 am.. I could not put this book down. To the reviewer who mentions an error between an "embassy" and a "consulate".. who cares???? The book is about a serial killer in Florence, not about the difference between a consulate and an embassy. That being said, my parents are Italian immigrants from Calabria, a southern province of Italy, and let me tell you that what the co-authors experienced is a sad truth about the painfully slow, bureaucratic, Italian judicial system. Somehow, I believed that the Northern provinces did not follow the same archaic path as the South.. but, I was wrong. I have a million questions I wish I could ask the authors... do they think the killer will ever be found, did this book stir things up??? In boca a lupo a Douglas and Mario.. Mi piace MOLTO..

A gripping and disturbing read

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.

incredible true crime book

For over a decade, the killer murdered and mutilated fourteen people; seven couples making out in parked cars. The police arrested several people, but none were permanently convicted. Though the case turned cold with the last homicides in 1985, renowned novelist Douglas J. Preston and Italian crime reporter Mario Spezi began an investigation to uncover the identity of THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE, which led to their being in trouble with local prosecutors. This is an incredible true crime book that in some ways reads like an obsessed investigative novel. The book is chilling because it is real and not a fictional account. Set aside time as readers will be spellbound to learn whether the authors identified the serial killer. Harriet Klausner

Stranger than fiction

In the annals of crime, the case of the "Monster of Florence" (the name Italian journalist Mario Spezi, one of the co-authors, and one of the key players in the case and this book, gave the killer) is truly one of the strangest. Starting in 1974, and continuing through 1985, seven couples were brutally murdered in the secluded lovers' lanes located in the hills surrounding the city of Florence, Italy. Still unsolved to this day, the crimes captured the horrified attention and imagination of the Italian people, and consumed enormous resources--nearly one hundred thousand men were investigated and more than a dozen arrested during the course of various inquiries into the crimes. Per Douglas Preston's introduction, the investigation "has been like a malignancy, spreading backward in time and outward in space, metastasizing into different cities and swelling into new investigations, with new judges, police, and prosecutors, more suspects, more arrests, and many more lives ruined." Not merely a recounting of those grisly crimes and endless investigations, The Monster of Florence (hereafter TMOF) is also an engrossing biographical piece, detailing the toll the case took on both its authors, who, in one of the stranger twists in a case replete with strange twists, become the focus of the ongoing police investigation. Thus, in a plot complication worthy of Alfred Hitchcock, the reporters became part of the very story they are covering--after his home is ransacked in a search, Spezi is subsequently arrested, and his collaborator, American crime novelist Preston, is harshly interrogated by the authorities. In a movie, the protagonists would have been able to clear their names by dramatically unmasking the real killer, unearthing a piece of key evidence at the last moment. Real life, however, proves to a bit more complicated, and certainly more bizarre. The back cover copy of the advance reading copy of TMOF compares it to John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City. The comparison is apt, but only to a point, as both these non-fiction works feel more like novels. TMOF, on the other hand, feels more like the product of journalists than novelists (certainly not surprising, given the backgrounds of its respective creators), calling to mind books like Jimmy Breslin's outstanding .44, or Vincent Bugliosi's memorable Helter Skelter. That's not to say it's any less gripping because of that tendency; in fact, in might have made the book all the more immediate and enthralling, because, in this instance, the strange facts in this case alone are enough to capture and hold any reader's attention.