A Florentine Mystery

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 murdererPraise for Some Bitter Taste

“Although [the Marshal] is exquisitely attuned to the changeable moods of his city and infinitely patient about the vagaries of its citizens, he often feels himself a hopeless outsider from Sicily. That estrangement is what makes Guarnaccia a compassionate champion of the many foreign victims.”
—The New York Times

“Fans of George Simenon’s Inspector Maigret will find much to like in Nabb’s twelfth police procedural . . . [Nabb possesses] elegant style and sensitivity to character.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Surprising plot twists . . . Strongly recommended for readers who like sophisticated, literate mysteries in foreign settings.”
—Library Journal

“The self-effacing carbinieri marshal is among the genre’s most appealing cops.”
—Booklist


Praise for Magdalen Nabb

"Exquisite."
—The New York Times Book Review

"Every word should be savored."
—Washington Post Book World

"The best mystery news in ages is that Soho is restoring to the canon Magdalen Nabb and her tremendous creation, Marshal Guarnaccia of the Italian Police in Florence."
—Chicago Tribune

"Nabb continues to extend conventions of the police procedural to suit her own intriguing vision and purpose."
—The Philadelphia InquirerMagdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire and trained as a potter. In 1975, she left her old life behind and moved with her son to Florence, where she fell in love with the local setting. Her Marshal Guarnaccia series, which has been translated into ten languages, was inspired by a real local marshal she befriended in the tiny pottery town of Montelupo Fiorentino. Nabb wrote children’s fiction and crime novels until her death in 2007.