When Douglas Preston moved to Florence, Italy, with his family, he anticipated using the locale as a backdrop for his latest murder mystery. While searching for a resource within the Carabinieri for Italian police procedure research, he was introduced to Mario Spezi, a Florentine crime beat journalist. Their introductory conversation proved vastly informative. Preston had been told that Spezi knew more about the police than the police themselves. The newsman was proving the gossip true.

Soon their talk veered toward Preston’s current home in Giogoli and one of the most horrendous murders ever to take place in Italy happened in the groves beneath the villa by a serial killer Spezi himself had given the moniker The Monster of Florence. To date, this monster remains free and his infamy has spawned a series of novels written with the Monster in mind. Does Hannibal Lecter ring a bell?

Fictional murder mystery forgotten, the duo began an investigative journey to search for and confront the man who committed crimes so horrific he’s been called the Jack The Ripper of Italy. Spezi, nicknamed the Monstrologer, had amassed over two decades of research into this true to life mystery. Many innocent people had been arrested throughout the course of the case, some taking their lives when reputations were inadvertently destroyed. Just as timely now as it ever was when the case began, Preston and Spezi were both individually arrested after they combined their skills to do additional sleuthing. Preston was accused of having connections to the Monster, then was banished from Italian soil. Spezi was accused of nineteen different crimes, one of which was being the Monster himself!

This is their story.

Having read all of the talented Douglas Preston’s well-written novels, not only those written solo but also the Aloysius Pendergast novels he’s co-written with Lincoln Child, The Monster of Florence was an auto-read for me. The topic was also made more compelling since I’d read all three Hannibal Lecter books by Thomas Harris.

Reading the authors’ interview with the man they believe to be the Monster was absolutely chilling. The idea that this killer still roams free is nightmare inducing. The bumbling Carabinieri proved time and again what an embarrassment they were to both their profession and their country with their eagerness to arrest anyone and everyone before logical proof was amassed.

Although this book is non-fiction, it reads like it belongs on the thriller shelves next to Preston’s other works. Often I lost sight that Preston was one of the authors and not a character. Once the first page was read, time fairly flew, as did the pages. Although it was announced on the book jacket that the Monster has never been caught, as I finished reading this true tale, a cold chill traveled down my spine as I knew that this man, even though it’s thought that he hasn’t killed for years, could conceivably pick up his gruesome habit at any time, putting Florentines in danger once again.

Reviewed by: Bella