A young Swiss art student has been reported missing, and Marshal Guarnaccia must travel to the small town where she was studying to find out the truth about her disappearance. When her body is found, it appears that she was the victim of a sex-related crime. But Guarnaccia—who comes from a small town himself—suspects that a local feud with roots in the horrors and betrayals of World War II may play an important part in the solution to the crime.
Italian law forbids paying ransom to criminals, and Marshal Guarnaccia must find the missing girl before her kidnappers decide to end her life. Two foreign girls are abducted from a Florence piazza in broad daylight. The unusual March snowfall has distracted everyone, even the marshal, who is unsure of what he has actually witnessed. One of the girls turns up in a village in the Chianti, claiming the kidnappers have released her to propose a ransom for the other victim. But the marshal thinks she’s lying.
“The richest mystery here, however, is Florence itself, whose intricate politics and class structure Nabb parses with precision and wit." —Washington Post Book World Summoned by an aged woman to investigate mysterious noises in the vacant flat next to hers, Marshal Guarnaccia discovers a dying Dutch jeweler. The old lady had known him when he was a boy growing up in Florence. Could he have returned to the family home just to commit suicide? Or could the man be the victim of a cunning murderer?
The Twelfth Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation When an elderly woman drops by the Florentine carabinieri to complain that someone broke in to her apartment while she was out, Marshal Guarnaccia listens patiently, offers advice, and vows to pay her a visit. But before he can keep his promise, Miss Hirsch is found dead, her throat cut. She wasn’t the only person to come to the Marshal for help in recent days. There’s also a young Albanian prostitute, who wants his help to stay out of prison, and a wealthy foreign robbery victim whose case the captain is quick to prioritize. The Marshal has his hands full, and his best efforts may not be enough to stop a murderer
The American-born founder of a prominent fashion house, Contessa Olivia Brunamonti, is mistaken for her daughter and kidnapped by a group of Sardinian shepherds. They’re holding her deep in the Tuscan hills and have demanded a huge sum for her return. Her daughter failed to report the incident for over a week, and the family’s assets have been frozen by an Italian government that forbids paying ransom. But the kidnappers can’t release their victim without being paid—it would set a bad precedent. And Guarnaccia suspects another problem: Could it be that Olivia’s children don’t want to save their mother? Is this more than just a random crime?
A New York Times bestseller, The Midnight Assassin is a sweeping narrative history of a terrifying serial killer--America's first--who stalked Austin, Texas in 1885. In the late 1800s, the city of Austin, Texas was on the cusp of emerging from an isolated western outpost into a truly cosmopolitan metropolis. But beginning in December 1884, Austin was terrorized by someone equally as vicious and, in some ways, far more diabolical than London's infamous Jack the Ripper. For almost exactly one year, the Midnight Assassin crisscrossed the entire city, striking on moonlit nights, using axes, knives, and long steel rods to rip apart women from every race and class. At the time the concept of a serial killer was unthinkable, but the murders continued, the killer became more brazen, and the citizens' panic reached a fever pitch. Before it was all over, at least a dozen men would be arrested in connection with the murders, and the crimes would expose what a newspaper described as "the most extensive and profound scandal ever known in Austin." And yes, when Jack the Ripper began his attacks in 1888, London police investigators did wonder if the killer from Austin had crossed the ocean to terrorize their own city. With vivid historical detail and novelistic flair, Texas Monthly journalist Skip Hollandsworth brings this terrifying saga to life.
One of the most violent crimes in U.S. history took place in the quiet, neighborly town of Villisca, Iowa. A family of eight went to church that night, went back home, got into their beds, and fell asleep. When the sun rose the next morning, none of them would be alive. Their house was a scene of unimaginable violence and bloodshed. The entire family of eight was bludgeoned beyond recognition with an ax while they slept. Six of them were children. Was it a madman who just picked their house at random... or was it much more than that? Special Agent Roy Marshall guides us through the crime scene, the investigation, the clues, and the fallout that led right to the steps of the State Capital.
All hell breaks loose when Jessica Parker arrives in 1876 Deadwood and finds her father brutally murdered. Jessie teams up with the cantankerous ghost of Wild Bill Hickok to confront a murderous gang of outlaws in a town gone mad with gold fever. They soon find themselves knee-deep in mayhem, with gunfights, Chinese sorcery, barroom brawls, pleasures of the flesh, giant demon owls, forbidden romance, and a heaping dose of frontier justice. Along the way, Jessie and Bill uncover a bizarre conspiracy that takes them to the very gates of hell itself. From prairie wildflower to badass gunslinger, Jessie Parker is destined to become a rip-snortin' hero of the Weird West--if she lives long enough to tell the tale!
