- ISBN13: 9780446581196
- Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Best of the Month, June 2008: When author Douglas Preston moved his family to Florence he never expected he would soon become obsessed and entwined in a horrific crime story whose true-life details rivaled the plots of his own bestselling thrillers. While researching his next book, Preston met Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist who told him about the Monster of Florence, Italy's answer to Jack the Ripper, a terror who stalked lovers' lanes in the Italian countryside. The killer would strike at the most intimate time, leaving mutilated corpses in his bloody wake over a period from 1968 to 1985. One of these crimes had taken place in an olive grove on the property of Preston's new home. That was enough for him to join "Monsterologist" Spezi on a quest to name the killer, or killers, and bring closure to these unsolved crimes. Local theories and accusations flourished: the killer was a cuckolded husband; a local aristocrat; a physician or butcher, someone well-versed with knives; a satanic cult. Thomas Harris even dipped into "Monster" lore for some of Hannibal Lecter's more Grand Guignol moments in
Hannibal. Add to this a paranoid police force more concerned with saving face and naming a suspect (any suspect) than with assessing the often conflicting evidence on hand, and an unbelievable twist that finds both authors charged with obstructing justice, with Spezi jailed on suspicion of being the Monster himself.
The Monster of Florence is split into two sections: the first half is Spezi's story, with the latter bringing in Preston's updated involvement on the case. Together these two parts create a dark and fascinating descent into a landscape of horror that deserves to be shelved between
In Cold Blood and
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
--Brad Thomas Parsons
In the nonfiction tradition of John Berendt ("Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil") and Erik Larson ("The Devil in the White City"),
New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston presents a gripping account of crime and punishment in the lush hills surrounding
Florence, Italy.
In 2000, Douglas Preston fulfilled a dream to move his family to Italy. Then he discovered that the olive grove in front of their 14
th century farmhouse had been the scene of the most infamous double-murders in Italian history, committed by a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence.
Preston, intrigued, meets Italian investigative journalist Mario Spezi to learn more.
This is the true story of their search for--and identification of--the man they believe committed the crimes, and their chilling interview with him. And then, in a strange twist of fate,
Preston and Spezi themselves become targets of the police investigation.
Preston has his phone tapped, is interrogated, and told to leave the country. Spezi fares worse: he is thrown into
Italy's grim Capanne prison, accused of being the Monster of Florence himself. Like one of Preston's thrillers,
The Monster Of Florence, tells a remarkable and harrowing story involving murder, mutilation, and suicide-and at the center of it, Preston and Spezi, caught in a bizarre prosecutorial vendetta.
| Preston, Spezi, and the Monster of Florence | 2010-03-11 | 3 / 5 |
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I was looking forward to reading "The Monster of Florence" by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi. I have a fascination with true crime that I hope is not indicative of something within me. Then again, I know many people love reading true crime.
The book started off at "full-speed", highly readable and interesting. Preston, an American writer and journalist, fell in love with Italy in his early teens and decided to go back to Florence with his family. There he intended to write a crime novel set in Florence, and in the course of his research he met an Italian journalist Mario Spezi, who covered crime his entire career.
Preston discovered through Spezi that he and his family lived across the road from an olive grove in which a horrific murder took place - a murder attributed to the Monster of Florence. But who is this Monster? Noone knew. Preston and Spezi forged a strong friendship and an alliance, both determined to discover the identity of the sadistic killer.
Italian police and criminal justice system saw their efforts differently, and soon Preston and Spezi became suspects themselves, entangled in a fantastic and outrageous conspiracy theory. And this is where the story starts to lose my attention.
The book is a narrative, as told by Preston, though the first part of the book is apparently told by Spezi. The first part reads like an investigation of an elusive murderer, a chase after evidence and clues, battling against setbacks and odds that stood in the investigators' way. The second part reads like a rant about the Italian justice system, and almost like a manifesto outlining when and where the prosecution went wrong, repeatedly returning to the subjective storytelling. This happened so much that an occasional poetic description of Tuscany itself seemed out of place.
After reading about the experience of the authors with the Italian criminal justice system, I can certainly understand why they would be disenchanted. However, I wanted to read a book on the Monster of Florence, and not a persistent counter-attack against the public minister of the city of Perugia and the chief inspector in charge of the Monster of Florence case. While that information may be interesting, it does get tiring after several dozen pages. Towards the end the book looked like a vendetta against the public minister of Perugia, when Preston addressed the minister's involvement in Amanda Knox's case, as well as his continued prosecution of Preston and Spezi.
I can't say that the entire book was unsatisfying, but it is definitely not one of the books I would read again. I would actually avoid it and look for other sources of information, if I needed it. The point does remain that Preston and Spezi did marvelous research on the Monster of Florence, which was well presented, along with some theories of possible suspects.
Recommended with caution.
**This review also published on Epinions. |
| Great Read | 2010-03-05 | 4 / 5 |
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| This book was a great read. I had to remind myself several times during my reading that this was nonfiction. I couldn't put the book down. I was so into the story that after I finished the book I Googled some of the characters to find out more about them. There were so many different characters that I got confused at times keeping them straight, but the character list in the beginning of the book was very helpful. I recommend not reading that list until you need to. I tried reading it first, but there were too many people to keep straight and I got bored and confused. I loved the chapter detailing the Amanda Knox arrest and interrogation. It really gave me a different perspective on the case from what I'd heard on the news. Would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading historical true crime. |
| Awesome book | 2010-02-26 | 5 / 5 |
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| Awesome book. Hard to put down. Real example of how true life can be stranger than fiction. Fantastic writing and research by Douglas Preston. His book 'Relic' was awesome too. Learned a lot about Italian culture, history, legal and law enforcement procedures. Books like this are not only an extremely compelling read but a real learning experience too. The behavior of the police and prosecutors is unbelievable - the corruption, the need to make up stuff - along with the public's acceptance of it. Of course, there are a lot good people too - Spezi, the judge who wrote the book, etc. I thought this kind of stuff happened in third world countries. |
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I took this book on vacation to Tuscany. It was so frightening, that I kept jumping at every bump in the night, searching the house and locking the doors! I stayed up until 5am one night reading it. What a memorable vacation!
The story of the murders is very good, and this book would be great if it stopped there. But what really sets this book apart is the subsequent story of the crimes committed by the Italian investigators--destroying reputations, jailing people for speaking the truth, driving people to insanity and suicide--and the establishment's mission to protect its own reputation above capturing a serial killer. That the Il Mostro's crimes remain unsolved, after so many lives have been broken, is a travesty. The title of this book really should be the Monsters (plural) of Florence, as Guiliano Mignini and his colleagues have proven to be as heartless as Il Mostro himself.
And, the afterward inserted in the latest edition, describing Amanada Knox's fate at the hands of these same monsters, is equally chilling. It reminds one that this is not just a story about a historic travesty, but one that is being repeated daily in Italy and elsewhere. You cannot read this book without coming to the conclusion that the corruption and injustice of this world are truly terrifying. |
| A captivating read | 2010-02-15 | 5 / 5 |
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Douglas Presto and Mario Spezi have created a page-turning account of the infamous "Monster of Florence" that has no real beginning or conclusion. The authors have taken fact and speculation and woven it into a tale that highlights the mysteries of a series of local killings in the Florence area, as well as the inadequacies of the Italian justice system. These inadequacies are directly responsible for the inability to nail down any conclusive evidence related to the killings, including failing to secure the crime scenes. In fact, much of the evidence collected throughout a series of investigations was based on hearsay, speculation, and witchery. As Mr. Preston concludes at the end, "Perhaps it was inevitable that the investigation would end up in a bizarre and futile search for a satanic sect... After all this is Italy."
The most interesting aspect of this bizarre tale is how many of the players are those that are involved in the Knox/Kerchner trial, which was also filled with similar accusations of witchery, speculation, and. possibly injustice.
Overall, "The Monster of Florence" provides all the ingredients of a great "true crime" story, including history, intrigue, suspense, and well-written prose. |
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