Death of an Englishman - Magdalen Nabb

...her Marshall Guarnaccia series with Death of an Englishman back in 1981, long before Michael Dibdin.

The author
Magdalen Nabb is an interesting woman. She was a potter who became disillusioned with her life in the UK and decided to move to Florence with her son, despite not speaking a word of Italian. Once settled, she decided to stay and started a new career as a writer of detective fiction and children's books. Although her ...
...the lives of expatriates in Italy, although the focus later changed to Italian lifestyles.

The plot
An Englishman based in Florence, Mr Langley-Smythe, is found shot through the back of the head. Yet neither his neighbours nor the English community know much about his lifestyle - he seems to have kept himself to himself and there are few clues to the reason for his death. Marshall Salvatore Guarnaccia of the Florence carabinieri ... more

Introduction
There has been a spate of crime fiction novels based in Italy recently, both by Italian authors translated into English and by English authors basing their novels in Italy. I think the interest has probably risen from Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen novels and other authors, such as Donna Leon, are stepping on to the bandwagon. However, Magdalen Nabb started her Marshall Guarnaccia series with Death of an Englishman back in 1981, long before Michael Dibdin.

The author
Magdalen Nabb is an interesting woman. She was a potter who became disillusioned with her life in the UK and decided to move to Florence with her son, despite not speaking a word of Italian. Once settled, she decided to stay and started a new career as a writer of detective fiction and children's books. Although her main character is Italian, her first few books concentrated on the lives of expatriates in Italy, although the focus later changed to Italian lifestyles.

The plot
An Englishman based in Florence, Mr Langley-Smythe, is found shot through the back of the head. Yet neither his neighbours nor the English community know much about his lifestyle - he seems to have kept himself to himself and there are few clues to the reason for his death. Marshall Salvatore Guarnaccia of the Florence carabinieri is ill in bed with flu, anxious that he is better in time to travel home to Sicily for Christmas. However, he keeps an eye on the case thanks to the Captain in charge and the young Carabiniere Bacci, a trainee officer, who are supported by two Scotland Yard officers brought over from the UK at the behest of Langley-Smythe's family.

Slowly, it emerges that antiques were being moved from Langley-Smythe's ground floor flat in the middle of the night on a regular basis. But even when his accomplices are tracked down, there seems to be no reason for his death. Could he have other enemies that the carabiniere have not yet tracked down? Although the Marshall is sick, his involvement in the case turns out to be pivotal.

The characters
It is hard to get much of an idea of the characters from this book. The main character, Marshall Guarnaccia, does not feature particularly highly in this book until the end, although he does play a more prominent role in future books. We find out very little about him, except that he is grumpy and hard to please and lives for the times when he can return to his wife and family back in Sicily. To be honest, I found it difficult to care much about him. The book was short, so there wasn't much room for characterisation, but even so, I expected more from this first book in the series.

Carabiniere Bacci was a more likeable character, bullied by his superiors, but is still determined to do well. Still, his portrayal is child-like; not really good enough for this type of book.

The English expatriates featured in the novel are an odd lot. Having lived abroad, I am familiar with the quirks of the Brits overseas; however, they were far too exaggerated and I found it annoying. I think that they are supposed to bring some humour to the book, but it just didn't work. The Scotland Yard officers were no better.

Conclusion
This was a weak book. The only advantages to it are the setting - I'm certainly more tempted to visit Florence than before now - and the fact that I have a personal interest in police cooperation across national borders. Other than that (and I'm sure police cooperation isn't at the top of most people's agendas), it is hard to find much to praise. There are other authors who write light-hearted books like this, M C Beaton springs to mind, but she does it so much better, with an acerbic wit. That is missing from this book and it just comes across as being silly. Having read a couple of her other books years ago, I should have known better - I don't think the series improves much. I certainly won't bother reading any more; there are so many much better crime fiction authors out there and the setting is no longer original. Not recommended.

If I haven't completely put you off, the book is available from Amazon for £6.99. At just 256 pages, it is published by Arrow. ISBN: 0099443341
 

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