RATING: 3.75The head of a prominent Italian fashion house, Contesssa Olivia Brunamonti is an American who married an Italian count. Largely by her own efforts, she has built a comfortable life for herself and her two adult children. A gang of kidnappers has targeted her daughter, Caterina, but abducted Olivia by mistake. She is now being held for ransom in the Tuscan hills. Certain that her children will pay the ransom quickly, Olivia does not dream of the trials that she will have to endure. Either through ignorance or greed, the ransom is not paid, and Olivia is held captive for a long period of time. It is not a comfortable incarceration. She is blindfolded at all times and rendered almost deaf so that she cannot hear the voices of her captors. There is one man who she dubs the "Woodcutter" who serves as her protector and provides her with some comforts.Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia is a member of the Florence police force and is assigned to work with the family to obtain Olivia's release. As he interviews her family and friends, he reveals the ugly truth about the dynamics of the family. Olivia has been a loving and caring mother, but it appears that her affections may have been misplaced and even resented. It's very sad to see the return that she receives on what she has invested in her children.The book is largely told from Olivia's point of view and recounts in detail her experiences while imprisoned. What at first seems cruel and cold in reality turns out to be an experience that opens her mind to the important things in her life. It's almost like she is undergoing an extended period of meditation. Once she adjusts to the physical discomforts, she survives the ordeal with great dignity. I had to learn to live inside my head and to call on a lifetime of sounds and images that were stored there. I had to learn not to cry. I had to learn to eat out of duty and without hunger. I had to learn not to admit hearing those few things I could hear and not to react to deliberate torment. I had to learn to accept pain and immobility quietly so that I wouldn't go mad. I had to learn to be passive when I had always been active. I had always thought of myself as a fighter but now I had to lay down my arms. If I wanted to live, I had to stay quietly inside my body and just be.This eleventh book in the Guarnaccia series does not disappoint until the conclusion of the book. The actual release of Olivia is really not described in detail, how the events that led up to it transpired. For some reason, after Olivia is freed, Nabb chose to stray from her point of view. Thus, the reader never really sees the impact of Olivia's return to "civilization" and how her family is interacting with each other after their failures to live up to their obligation to save their mother. The resolution was extremely disappointing in that Nabb had so beautifully engaged us in Olivia's mind and soul. At the conclusion, we were at a distance from her and it was not very satisfying and some of her actions didn't seem consistent with her character.That being said, Nabb is a superlative writer whose low-key protagonist carries the investigation forward flawlessly and without pretention. Characterization is definitely the strongest aspect of Nabb's writing, and her prose is elegant.
Love the quote from page 100-101 " 'What's the matter with you?' was his wife's first remark...'Nothing'....Teresa sighed. He always turned up in the kitchen when he would be most in her way, and in all the years they had been married she had never given up trying to throw him out. The kitchen wasn't especially big and he took up a lot of room. However, the years had taught her that if he got out of uniform and showered before presenting himself, he was looking for a hug and a chance to sniff and taste whatever was cooking for supper. The black, silent form she saw looming out of the corner of her eye meant trouble...'Do get out of my way, Salva.' He shifted a few centimetres and stuck again. 'Why don't you go watch the news?' No answer. 'We're having spaghetti alla mollica'...'Where are the boys?'... He stood drinking in the comforting sound of her voice and felt better. 'Now where are you going?''I thought I'd watch the news. What's for supper?'...."& again on page 108" 'MI6, yes.' Though peaceable at the moment, there was an edge to his voice that said he would become dangerous if annoyed. Fusarri did not annoy him. He offered him a cigar and made the Marshal step forward and be introduced, happy in his conviction that no amount of years in the Service would prepare anyone to cope with Guarnaccia's bulging-eyed silences."A very good read. Marshal Guarnaccia is an intuitive investigator, absorbing information as it is presented & making connections without using force. He is a humble self-deprecating unassuming character. He is likened physically to an English bulldog in appearance, and in his tenacity when it comes to figuring out who's playing what part in the puzzle. All around him the florentine attitudes are the sea he swims in. I look forward to reading more in this series.
Do You like book Property Of Blood (2003)?
Jacket notes: “Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia, a Sicilian officer of the carabinieri stationed in Florence, is faced with the horrendous kidnapping for ransom of a lovely Contessa.Olivia, an American-born model, married Count Ugo Brunamonti, a feckless, soon impoverished aristocrat. After his death, she supported her children--Leonardo and Caterina--by starting a fashion house which has prospered. When she is kidnapped, the crime is reported to Marshal Guarnaccia by her daughter, who may have been the intended victim.”This is the 11th book in the Marshal Guarnaccia series by Magdalen Nabb. Each book gets better and better as Nabb’s main characters grow and become more complex. Marshal Guarnaccia is one of my favourite crime/mystery solvers. I love his solid pace when it comes to figuring things out, much in the way a bulldog plods along to the finish. I also like how Nabb takes a simple plot, a kidnapping, and turns it upside down by viewing all sides of the story.Another good book in the series...only a few more books to go until the last one that Magdalen Nabb wrote before her death in 2007.
—Monica
First Sentence: I’ll do my best to tell you everything but the things I remember are perhaps not what you need.Kidnap is big business in Italy. An American-born model who married an Italian aristocrat worked for years to rebuild the family’s fortune and reputation after her husband squandered it all away. Now, she has been kidnapped and the crime reported to Marshal Guarnaccia by the daughter. Having established first contact, Guarnaccia is to act as liaison to the family. He soon realizes all is not as it should be and he also quietly works with his counterpart in the Tuscan hills, home of the Sardinian sheep families who are often involved in such kidnappings.What a powerful, painful and scary opening! Yet at no point do you want to stop or turn away. As much as anything else, this is the story of a family and a strong woman. Much of the story takes us through her experience through a monologue that is as interesting as the investigation. It becomes easy to see how and why the “Stockholm Syndrome” comes to be. The story is also a condemnation of Italy’s kidnap laws and the judicial system.tThe book has such a strong sense of place and of proprietary. At one point, the Marshal doesn’t feel it is his place to question some people.The Marshal, which is his rank within the Carabinieri—the law enforcement branch which is part of the army yet concerned with criminal investigation, serious crime and organized crime—is a fascinating character. By his rank, he is a non-commissioned officer, somewhat equivalent to a sergeant. He is something of a plodder; a thinker and an observer…”The Marshal pursued his usual policy of interrogation. That is, he kept quiet.” He doesn’t rush about, but mulls the tiny details. He isn’t a Colombo who wants people to underestimate him. He truly downplays his own intellect and significance. Although he is married with two sons, the focus is not on his family, but on him and the investigation.“Property of Blood” is a very good book with intriguing twists. More than a mystery, it is a character study. Sadly, I’ve only three books left to read in this series.PROPERTY OF BLOOD (Pol Proc-Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia, Florence, Italy, Contemp) – VG+Nabb, Magdalen – 11th in seriesSoho, 1999
—LJ
It's lovely when a mystery author takes you to a place that you've been as a tourist and takes you into another level of that place you never knew existed. Magdalen Nabb does this for the historic city of Florence, giving a fine portrait of both local color and politics. The other two mysteries I've read by Nabb were difficult for me to get into, with dense writing and a lack of depth to the characters. That changed in 'Property of Blood', with the first person narration of being kidnapped and held for ransom, and the exploration of the main character's passion for police work. The dynamics of the victim's family were complex and intriguing, and while there's no murder at the center of the plot, there is no pat ending. Emotionally realistic mysteries are hard to do, but Nabb managed it with finesse without sacrificing suspense.
—Nicole
