The Innocent

The thirteenth Marshal Guarnaccia Investigation

The body of a woman has been found half-submerged in an ornamental fish pond high up in Florence’s Boboli Gardens. At first, the corpse cannot be identified, rendered unrecognizable by feeding fish, but the Marshal traces other clues to find answers. The victim was a young Japanese woman apprenticed to one of Florence’s legendary custom shoemakers, crotchety old Peruzzi. Could he have killed his protégé? Or did jealousy drive his other apprentice to murder? The neighbors have seen Akiko with a lover—a brilliant young carabinieri—who has disappeared. Has he fled to avoid arrest? The marshal must travel to Rome to complete his investigation.Praise for The Innocent

“It is so good to walk with [Magdalen Nabb] through the animated streets of Florence, with its carabinieri, its ordinary people, its little trattorie and even its noisy tourists. It’s all so alive, you can hear the noises, smell the smells, see that morning mist on the fast flowing Arno . . . Bravissimo!”
—Georges Simenon

“[Nabb crafts a] sense of estrangement [that] accounts for Guarnaccia’s special perspective on strangers, those ‘innocents’ among the living and the dead . . . Once a stranger, she knows, always a stranger.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“The richest mystery here . . . is Florence itself, whose intricate politics and class structure Nabb parses with precision and wit.”
—The Washington Post

Praise for Magdalen Nabb

“Artfully understated . . . [An] elegant series.”
—The New York Times Book Review
 
“[Nabb] writes in graceful, calm prose.”
—The Associated Press
 
“Lovely measured language . . . Offers such pleasures as great local atmosphere and rich characterizations.”
—Publishers Weekly
 
“Lean, elegant prose that surpasses the best of Simenon.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 
“[A] superb series.”
—Booklist
 
“Guarnaccia’s Florence is a delightful place to visit.”
—Mystery SceneMagdalen 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.