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Product Description: 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 14th 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. Amazon.com: Amazon 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 Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-06
Monster Killer, Monster Cops
A superb true-crime book, both in the reporting and the writing. The ineptitude of the Italian police in this case is hard to believe, though it has milder echoes here in America. (See "The Dreams of Ada," which I happen to have written, plus John Grisham's "The innocent Man" and "Journey To Justice" by Dennis Fritz.)) But sensitive readers, especially women, should be forewarned: the crime of this monster of Florence against his female victims boggles the mind. The authors don't go into gruesome detail, but they had to report what happened. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-05
Florence incognita
The obvious American parallel with the Italian mass murderer in question is Zodiac. True: Italy's Monster did not dub himself with an occult title, taunted the police less directly and elaborately, and left no surviving witnesses. But, Zodiac's preferred targets, his cruelly visceral violence, and his elusiveness all ring familiar. The Zodiac case has led to at least one hard-nosed, focused, investigative book and a first-rate movie. Oddly, THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE, rather than contemplate such parallels, proffers much about the reporters themselves and about the Italian police and bureaucrats. All that surely may make for a worthy topic in itself; but the book styles itself, and certainly seeks to expand readership by, an ostensible focus on the linked lurid slayings that terrorized a famously exotic locale (again, like Zodiac in California). The lamest aspects of Preston's story are his gratuitous digressions on Florentine history; and his decision finally to fix the mystery of the Monster not in the universal perturbations of the human heart and mind, but simply in some superciliously distanced foreign land of "Italy." Recommended for readers fascinated by the reporting life, judicial corruption, and notions of American exceptionalism. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-05
When in Rome
When in Rome or wherever one is in Italy, do as I did!!
I read this book while traveling in Rome and in the area of Adriatic coast cities. Though not visiting Florence, the flavor of the vivid descriptions on landscape, the really good characters, authentic, clear, funny, scarry & human were so very interesting to me. I enjoyed learning a great deal about the history of Florence and also Italy in general while being there. Very very interesting true murder mystery. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-02
Great summer read
While it's a bit premature to shelve this title beside true crime classics IN COLD BLOOD and MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL (blame the publisher's marketing department for the hyperbole, not the authors), this remains a fantastic entry in the subgenre as well as a briskly written page turner perfect for the summer. Having lived in Tuscany, I found the book evoking an unsettling blend of chills and nostalgia, and highly recommend it as a tonic to all the "Aren't Italians a lovable bunch of bronzed hedonists!" books, like UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, etc. In fact the authors' insights into the culture of modern (Northern) Italy -- with particular emphasis on its baroque legal system -- is every bit as fascinating as the crime story. Like ZODIAC (an outstanding and under-appreciated recent film) this is a serial killer narrative without an ending; and yet there is a satisfyingly nail-biting climax, as (incredibly!) authors Preston and Spezi become entangled in their own tale. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-02
Extraordinary True Crime Page-Turner
Beautifully written. Eye-opening and heartbreaking.
Written by wildly popular thriller writer Douglas Preston (BLASPHEMY, TYRANNOSAUR CANYON, and co-author with Lincoln Child of the Agent Pendergast series) in collaboration with celebrated Italian journalist Mario Spezi, THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE is an edge-of-the-seat true crime thriller par excellence. Based on decades of research and investigation, it tells the true story of the Monster who terrorized the Italian countryside around Florence for over 20 years, killing and mutilating more than a dozen young lovers in their cars. It also provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes exposé of how the Monster hunt was handled (and in some cases mishandled) by Italy's law enforcement and judiciary system. An unforgettable portrait of a city rooted both in enlightenment and dark, festering secrets - centering on the Monster who's haunted it for far too long. Chillingly, he's still out there...
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