Aug 03 2007
A Florentine Death
As head of the anti-mafia squad in Naples and then Florence, followed by an eight-year stint as the chief of Florence’s elite police force, the Squadra Mobile, Michele Giuttari knows a thing or two about both criminal behaviour and investigations.
He is currently a special adviser to the interior minister in Rome with a remit to keep a close eye on mafia activity, so the suave Giuttari still has his finger very much on the pulse. Now, it seems, he has been doing a bit of moonlighting. In his spare time, when not listening to opera, he’s turned to writing thrillers and has quickly established himself as a major literary figure in Italy.
A Florentine Death is his first book to be published in the UK, and has all the hallmarks of becoming a classic of the genre – a highly atmospheric tale of murder, the mafia and the rarely explored criminal underbelly of Florentine life.
Guittari’s own experience is particularly relevant because his main character, Michele Ferrara, is also head of Florence’s Squadra Mobile, and likes opera, cigars and strongly believes in brains before bullets.
As to be expected, the story has an extraordinary ring of authenticity to it, although perhaps what could not have been expected is the revelation that Giuttari can actually write. His plotting is tight, the suspense ratchets up and the characters are very believable and captivating.
The action starts with the violent death of a young shop assistant in the historic Tuscan town of Greve, followed by another brutal murder of an assistant at an antiques shop in Florence’s Santo Spirito.
Ferrara soon finds a link with a Calabrian mafia antiques smuggling racket, but he has a much harder time pinpointing who has actually committed the crimes. And when a beautiful young student from Bologna and her tricky American journalist lover emerge, along with a troubled young priest, Giuttari finds his initial presumptions fly out of the window.
In a city as beautiful – but ugly under the surface – as Florence, nothing is quite what it seems. Fortunately this is just the first of the series. Ferrara is set to run and run.
A Florentine Death - by Michele Giuttari (Abacus £10.99) 4/5 - By Henry Sutton 03/08/2007 - http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/entertainment/books/2007/08/03/a-florentine-death-89520-19553749/
