The Marshal and the Madwoman

Out giving his wife driving lessons, Marshal Guarnaccia of the Carabinieri witnesses a disturbance in the streets involving a local eccentric, “crazy Clementina.” When the woman is found dead in her apartment soon after the incident of an apparent suicide, the marshal is puzzled and immediately suspects foul play. But who would have a motive to kill her? As the marshal dives into the case and reconstructs Clementina’s tragic past, his investigation dredges up the events surrounding a disastrous flood some twenty years earlier and a controversial piece of legislation with profound effects on the lives of Italy’s mentally unstable residents.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."
—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.