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The Monster of Florence

3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 · rating details · 12,773 ratings · 1,679 reviews

In the nonfiction tradition of John Berendt ("Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil") and Erik Larson ("The Devil in the White City"), New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston presents a gripping account of crime and punishment in the lush hills surrounding Florence, Italy.
In 2000, Douglas Preston fulfilled a dream to move his family to Italy. Then he discovered...more

Hardcover, 322 pages

Published June 10th 2008 by Grand Central Publishing (first published January 1st 2008)

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The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

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Jul 15, 2008 Brooke rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, non-fiction

Despite my criminal justice background, I'm not a huge fan of true crime books. It's not that I dislike them, but unless the author has a personal connection to the case (ie: The Stranger Beside Me, Helter Skelter) they often just end up being a recitation of the facts without much more going for them.

When I first caught wind of Douglas Preston's debacle with an Italian serial killer, The Monster of Florence, I couldn't wait to read the resulting book. How often does one of my favorite bestse...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Dan Schwent rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Dan by: The Great and Powerful Emily

Shelves: homework-from-the-ladies, 2012

Thriller writer Douglas Preston moved to Italy, only to find out the nearby olive grove was the scene of a ghasty double murder. Preston and the journalist originally covering the investigation, Mario Spezi, dig into the case of the Monster of Florence, even winding up being investigated themselves...

I know I made the synopsis sound like a thriller but this is non-fiction, the account of an Italiatian serial killer and his murders. It's a facinating journey into a reign of terror that lasted dec...more

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Jul 21, 2008 John Wiswell rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Crime readers, culture readers

The Monster of Florence is amongst the most disturbing cases I've heard of, much less read a full book detailing, but if you're like me you can't help but want insight into what would make people do such things, or at least know how a town would deal with them. The Monster was a serial killer who stalked, murdered and mutilated young couples in Florence, Italy. He had the disturbing habit of jamming items into the female victims, and cutting off parts of their erogenous zones as souvenirs. Seria...more The Monster of Florence is amongst the most disturbing cases I've heard of, much less read a full book detailing, but if you're like me you can't help but want insight into what would make people do such things, or at least know how a town would deal with them. The Monster was a serial killer who stalked, murdered and mutilated young couples in Florence, Italy. He had the disturbing habit of jamming items into the female victims, and cutting off parts of their erogenous zones as souvenirs. Serial murder is so rare in southern Europe and Florence is considered (and certainly considers itself) such a cradle of history and culture that it dumfounded police and sent the public into confused hysteria. People who were merely suspected of not having an alibi or resembling a possible sketch of the Monster were harassed, and at least one suspect committed suicide to escape the pressure. The police, with poor technology and no experience with such a criminal, pursued every lead in often reckless fashion, canvassing people from barbers to doctors to priests (one of whom had his Sunday services scoped out by several officers who eyed him to make sure he didn’t get rid of any evidence). Quacks, mediums, psychics and a few brilliant journalists were consulted as they tried to figure this man (or men) out. Psychological profiles conflicted and stories kept falling through as the Monster continued to terrorize Florence, taking over a dozen victims. Preston walked into an amazing story that Americans hadn’t heard because it happened somewhere else. He pursued the case until he became a suspect. All now in the past, it sounds like it could have been a nice fiction novel, but it was and remains a real horror for Florence.

Mario Spezi is an Italian journalist who followed the case from the beginning, sometimes working with police and often getting ahead of them. Eventually he became a prime suspect in the eyes of the authorities and conspiracy theorists. Spezi is the obvious major source for this book, with Preston playing catch-up. All of Preston’s experience in co-writing books definitely helped put together a cohesive explanation of not just their theory, but of every major theory and stage in the case. Their indignation at eventually becoming suspects (as it seems, they were suspected for having so much interest in the case, journalism not being accepted as a motive for their degree of research regardless of alibis) clearly shows up in their often withering or uninterested portrayals of certain members of the law. When you see their civil rights violated and police procedure abused, it is easy to figure why the writers would become biased against them, and the bias rarely becomes cloying.

One sticking point, though, is that near the end of the book they write themselves like they’re guilty as sin. People normally react to absurd allegations with confusion, unable to wrap their minds around what has been said. Yet in their description of Spezi dealing with officers Spezi immediately figures out what the police suspect, which is the normal conclusion of a guilty mind. Preston’s description of his own interrogation is guarded and almost apologetically explanatory, excusing things he may have said on the record. Afterwards their conversation is dominated with debunking what Preston calls a credible theory that they were guilty. What may have been intended as an evenhanded approach to the crime makes them appear suspicious, and that doesn’t help matters when you’re forced to realize you are hearing one voice (arguably two voices) from one side of a story, without the perspective of officers. They bluntly describe the way police mistreated them without the similar evenhanded approach to explaining that many of these officers might have still believed they were the killers or were helping the real one.

Other issues are more trivial. Did you know Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter was inspired by this case? Probably not, but you’ll never forget it since Preston mentions it over and over again. Harris was here, Harris met this person, this killing that is really nothing like Lecter helped inspire his creation. One of these trivial mentions would have been a neat note and probably would have sold a few more copies of this book. Doing it so often was irksome, almost like literary toadying, especially since they’re so shallow. We don’t get insight into what Harris did or thought. It seems like Preston never spoke to him; he just wanted to drop his name in the introduction and every fifty pages thereafter. Cheap things like this are especially irksome in the face of such a horrifying story. It doesn’t need celebrity cameos.

Like in his fiction, Preston is still working on his manner as a storyteller. This case lends itself to dramatic narrative and frequent cultural references, but he still hams up his prose. He is still the writer who uses “protestations” instead of “protests” and thinks an azure sky is worth noting. He likes flashy or striking portraits of people and places, and has the fiction writer’s impulse to write insights into minds and events he couldn’t have been privy to (I know – I’ve got it too). At points it really detracts from an objective approach or the sense of a totally informed opinion that is crucial in reporting this. Preston’s great instincts as a storyteller and knowledge of journalism bang into each other imperfectly, especially when he becomes more emotionally involved, where I wish I could have read an account from someone other than Preston himself.

Despite these issues, Monster of Florence is well worth reading. The first half gives a rich and thoroughly researched view of the journey through this bizarre and anomalous case of serial murder in the cradle of culture. I’m not a fan of crime writing and found the details and procedure fascinating. Awful as it is to be real, Preston makes his informative story as sizzling as just about any crime fiction – at least until he makes himself a part of it in telling his own role.(less)

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Jul 11, 2010 John and Kris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recent history has shown that serial killers usually come from northern Europe and America. The never-caught Monster of Florence, credited with the murder of eight couples, is unique because the murders occurred around Florence, Italy in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. The Monster’s modus operandi is pretty straight-forward: catching unsuspecting rural teens necking in autos, shooting the male and then female (or in the case of two long-haired men, the nearest threat), and then a bit of sex...more Recent history has shown that serial killers usually come from northern Europe and America. The never-caught Monster of Florence, credited with the murder of eight couples, is unique because the murders occurred around Florence, Italy in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. The Monster’s modus operandi is pretty straight-forward: catching unsuspecting rural teens necking in autos, shooting the male and then female (or in the case of two long-haired men, the nearest threat), and then a bit of sexual mutilation culminating in a souvenir carved out of the female. This is what I forced my family to listen to in the van on our trip to DC through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

American author Douglas Preston did what successful writers do: moved for a short period to a house overlooking an olive grove on the outskirts of Florence to work on a novel. As Preston familiarized himself with the new exotic surroundings he learned of a brutal double-murder, attributed to the Monster of Florence, the local serial killer, within walking distance of his rented home. Preston would abandon his fiction book project and write a mildly interesting book about the brutal Monster murders.

My first audio book of the road trip to DC would make for a bad made-for-TV movie. I felt that Preston was pushing too hard for a dramatic narrative: The fact that the killer was never caught, a detail we learn in the first few minutes, undercuts the desperately manufactured story arc throughout Preston’s only non-fiction work. Preston details the murders, the suspects, makes generalizations of Italian culture, and then, finally, takes a guess at who he thinks might be the killer. His independent investigation annoys the, according to Preston, hapless, corrupt, ignorant, machismo, face-saving at all costs Italian authorities still working on the provincially famous case. Preston’s research and naïve American curiosity lead to him being bullied by Italian authorities threatening criminal action. He would survive to write a best-selling book and then sell the film rights. The real lessons of the book: One, nosy Americans should mind their own business and two, court/justice systems, even in first world nations, make for political football which can ruin peoples lives.

The narrator of Preston’s book on CD, with a voice similar to Christopher Walken’s, only higher, had the annoying habit of pronouncing Italian nouns and phrases with such a vigorous and delightful flourish that it became comical within the first hour and fucking annoying by the tenth.

My favorite part of the book had to do with the voyeuristic nature of some Florentines, a subject not mentioned even once in my forced viewing of Under The Tuscan Sun. According to Preston, youngsters would park their cars in hidden locales in the hills surrounding Florence. Voyeurs would watch from the cover of brush and darkness. The regular voyeurs claimed the best spots for watching as their territory and sold their spots on a nightly basis to interloping, part-time voyeurs. A secondary market was then created by people spying and then blackmailing the voyeurs after photographing them lurking in the bushes; a photo flash in the dark hills could earn an enterprising entrepreneur a tidy sum depending on the wealth of the voyeur. It was in this subculture that the Monster killed. I would guess that this real life The Hills Have Eyes culture has been destroyed by the internet and that the Monster was clearly dealing with some sexual frustration.

Unfortunately for Preston the attacks of 9/11 bumped his feature Monster piece from The New Yorker in 2001. Then the murder of Meredith Kercher and the subsequent Amanda Knox trial stole much of his Monster of Florence book release thunder. As it turns out Americans don’t like to think of Italy with real-world problems but rather as a Renaissance-themed national park filled with a beautiful people, food, architecture, and art.

The Monster of Florence was an influence for the film Hannibal, which I saw but don’t remember.

Preston’s Monster article appearing in The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/a...

(less)

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Dec 08, 2008 Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, true-crime, social-observ, horror-macabre, italy, nonfiction

The Dark Side of Italy or An Innocent Abroad

Douglas Preston and co-author Mario Spezi undertook their own investigation into an unsolved string of serial killings -- seven couples brutally murdered in near-identical fashion in a period beginning in 1968 and stretching up to 1985. Spezi, a journalist who first caught wind of the case, is its most noted chronicler and was responsible for the appellation, "The Monster of Florence" to describe the killer.

The first half of the book reads like a stra...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Verovsky Brandão rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: leituras-2012

Não costumo dar muito 5 estrelas pelos livros e peço desculpa ser uma unhas de fome :P Mas o facto é que este livro me agradou mesmo muito. Não só pelo relato verídico e quase científico do modus operandi do Monstro de Florença mas também a forma como o governo italiano me chocou ao tentar abafar o caso.
Sou fã de Douglas Preston, acho-o mais do que um mero entertainer de literatura thriller e aflige-me ter passado por um conjunto de situações que me deixaram simplesmente incrédula.
Muito, muito...more

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Aug 24, 2008 Stephanie Bedrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

I CAN NOT believe this book! Absolutely incredible how truly ridiculous the Italian investigation of this is! Also incredible that the journalists are willing to put themselves on the line and name who they think is the "Monster of Florence." (They say this in the book jacket, so no surprises given!) Great, true life crime book!

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Jan 19, 2012 Gemma rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, non-fiction

I really can't believe this book, absolutely fascinating.
The story starts by detailing the true timeline of events over the 10 year period 'the monster' was killing, this told through the eyes of Mario Spezi who was the journalist on the case. The investigation into the murders was seriously flawed, and corrupt. If that isn't all, the second half of the book details Douglas Preston & Spezi's account of their investigation, and this makes for some shocking reading, more findings of corruptio...more

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Mar 05, 2009 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not my bedtime read - but a great read. Doug Preston and Mario Spezi do a great job pulling us into all the mystery, intrigue, and lunacy of a case that has spanned more than three decades. Both writers are adept at richly describing the characters, the history, and the millieux of Florence and its surrounds. The crimes commited by the Monster are repulsive but Preston and Spezi do not dwell upon the gruesome details - they lead us through and beyond them.

I greedily took in the details of Sardi...more

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Amy Is the entire book based on a true story or just one incident? Sounds intriguing but I'm not sure I would like the darker aspects if there is no stron...more
Mar 07, 2009 06:29am

Natalie It's all true and the story relates the history of the investigation from the 1970's through to the present so there are many incidents both from the...more
Mar 08, 2009 06:13pm

Nov 05, 2008 Ruby rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: true crime fans

Recommended to Ruby by: Rebekah Crain

I am not a true crime reader, but I love Douglas Preston so when I saw this on the shelf, I knew I just had to read it. Thus began an adventure that would rival that of Jack the Ripper. Liken to Jack, the Monster of Florence is the Italian legend who, instead of slaying prostitutes, would prey on young couples. With gun in hand, he would kill the man and woman before cutting into the woman's body. The description here is taken out because of the graphic nature of what the Monster did. It is some...more

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Andrew I'm not a great true crime fan either. My problem is that I dislike seeing bad things happen to people who do not deserve it. That being said, I enjoy...more
Nov 06, 2008 07:29pm

Ruby I am like you. I would rather read something that is not true because I know that it did not happen. Strangely, most cases that are from CSI and other...more
Nov 06, 2008 08:46pm

Andrew I'm interested to hear that the CSI cases are "inspired" if that's the word, by real cases. I know one episode of "Cold Case" was reminiscent of a rea...more
Nov 06, 2008 10:15pm

Jul 31, 2008 Ed rated it 3 of 5 stars

Douglas Preston had planned a murder mystery in which the main character was the city of Florence, Italy. His book was going to span more than forty years and involve a son deciding resolve the unsolved murder of his father, an American art historian who was in Florence as a volunteer to help save some of the city's treasures after the disastrous floods of 1965. When Preston and his family set up housekeeping in a lovely old farmhouse overlooking the city and the Tuscan countryside he found a mu...more Douglas Preston had planned a murder mystery in which the main character was the city of Florence, Italy. His book was going to span more than forty years and involve a son deciding resolve the unsolved murder of his father, an American art historian who was in Florence as a volunteer to help save some of the city's treasures after the disastrous floods of 1965. When Preston and his family set up housekeeping in a lovely old farmhouse overlooking the city and the Tuscan countryside he found a much better story.

A maniac who became known as The Monster of Florence was in the middle of a series of murders. He killed young couples who were making love in cars parked in hidden spots in the hills above the city, shooting both of them and then sexually mutiliating the body of the woman. He killed at least 14 people over a decade and despite task forces of police, prosecutors and judges, has never been identified.

There were several arrests--in each case the Monster struck again while the person accused of being him was in custody. Fans of U. S. true crime books might be surprised at the casual manner of dealing with crime scenes, evidence chains of custody and witness identification that characterize Italian police procedure, at least as described in this book.

Co-author Mario Spezi is a Florence based journalist who was the authority, the "go to" guy, on the Monster. He had great sources within the police, the prosecutors and the caribineri, skillfully playing one against the other when necessary, often getting tips so that he was not only the first journalist at a new murder scene but often the second person altogether--the first being the cop who was supposed to guard the scene but who often let Spezi examine everything before the detectives and medical examiner arrived. This access was a double-edged sword--Spezi wrote a European best seller about the Monster but was also accused of complicity in one of the sets of murders. Since he knew so much, the thinking went, some of his information must have come from the Monster or people who were close to him.

Preston makes Florence and the Florentines the center of the book--necessary since the murders have yet to be solved so there is no guilty party to concentrate on. The city prides itself not only as the birthplace of the Renaissance in Italy but essentially the cradle of western civilization. There are aristocratic families who claim to trace their ancestry to the Etruscans and who can look down on nobles of Roman lineage as parvenus who didn't arrive until a couple of centuries before Julius Caesar was stabbed at the Forum. Some municipal offices are in barely converted medieval or Renaissance palaces and monastaries and a 17th century Baroque ducal manor used by the city is considered gauche new construction.

The citizens of Florence were as fearful and panicky as any group threatened by evil forces that they couldn't control or even understand. Thousands of tips flooded into the various task forces created at different times, none of which were useful and many of which were insane. Straying husbands, ungrateful sons and domineering fathers were denounced. When twice the police released artist renditions of the Monster a frenzy of hysteria and dread swept the population.

"The Monster of Florence" covers over a decade of frantic work by the Italian authorities who were often working at cross purposes with each other. Preston and Spezi are convinced they know the identity of the Monster, a person who has been a suspect for years but who has never been arrested. They are definitely on the side of the carabineri in the three way struggle over control of the investigation--the other two sides are the public prosecutor's office and the regional police--which makes sense since it was the police and prosecutor who locked up Spezi as a possible accessory. They do a very good job of unpacking some of the Byzantine bureaucracy that, while it exists everywhere, seems particularly arcane in Italy.

There is as much reporting as analysis in the book--Spezi is a journalist on a daily paper--and it never drags. The authors cover a lot of time, space and people and keep things moving. There is a lengthy cast of characters that precedes the main narrative which I didn't have to refer to at all.

An unusual true crime tale, one without the typical resolution of such books--the murder is identified and caught--well written and worth reading.(less)

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Jul 31, 2008 Kimberly rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Jack the Ripper and other such crazy stories.

A strange tale of truth. I have always been attracted to stories of Jack the Ripper and the Boston strangler. Yet I had never heard about this killer in Italy. Spezi is at the center, a journalist for La Nazione at the time of the first murders. The book begins with a background and much of Spezi's experience. the author Preston, then discusses his experience with the telling of Spezi's story.

They become entangled in the government and Politics that is Italy. Between the whisperings of Mafiosa...more

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Jul 22, 2008 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars

From 1968 to 1985 a serial killer is suspected to have roamed the gorgeous Tuscan landscape, killing as many as eight couples while they made love in cars parked in the rolling countryside. The killer's (or killers') viciousness rivaled that of London's Jack the Ripper, and his crimes inspired Thomas Harris's infamous Hannibal Lecter. And although the slayings would come to an abrupt stop in 1985, the Monster of Florence still enjoys a formidable presence amongst the inhabitants of Florence and...more From 1968 to 1985 a serial killer is suspected to have roamed the gorgeous Tuscan landscape, killing as many as eight couples while they made love in cars parked in the rolling countryside. The killer's (or killers') viciousness rivaled that of London's Jack the Ripper, and his crimes inspired Thomas Harris's infamous Hannibal Lecter. And although the slayings would come to an abrupt stop in 1985, the Monster of Florence still enjoys a formidable presence amongst the inhabitants of Florence and its outlying areas, as his identity remains undetermined to this day.

Author Douglas Preston moved to Florence with the intention of writing a work of fiction, but after learning that his front yard was the scene of one of the Monster's gruesome murders, he became fascinated with the unsolved case and found he could focus on little else. With the help of journalist Mario Spezi - nicknamed the "Monstrologer" for his expertise in the case - Preston discovered an unbelievable story, one involving real-life monsters, a cast of degenerates, an Internet nutcase, and even a suspected satanic cult.

But the story of the investigation would prove to be as fascinating as the story of the murders themselves, as time and time again the authorities proved they were more interested in using the case for their own personal gain than in justice; thus, they made false accusations, wrongfully imprisoned several innocent people, possibly planted evidence, illegally spied on dissidents, and even went so far as to accuse Mario Spezi of being the Monster after his investigative work and forthcoming book threatened to paint them in an unflattering light. It's as hard to imagine such acts of brutality taking place in the breathtakingly beautiful home of The Renaissance as it is to imagine such investigative incompetence in a supposedly civilized country, however every bit of it is true.

The Monster of Florence is divided into two parts: the first detailing the investigation into the Monster's crimes and identify, and the second chronicling Preston's collaborative work with Spezi and their subsequent indictments for obstruction of justice. Both parts are of equal interest, and, in the vein of In Cold Blood and The Devil in the White City, the whole piece reads like a work of fiction. My biggest criticism (aside from the difficulties I had keeping all the Italian names straight) was that the ending disappoints somewhat, but there's not much else the authors could have done seeing as the crime remains unsolved.

Bottom line: Preston and Spezi have created a meticulously researched, well-written and wholly absorbing book, and it's a must-read if you are at all interested in the true crime genre.(less)

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Oct 01, 2008 Jen Padgett Bohle rated it 2 of 5 stars

The labrynthine true story of the as-yet-unsolved Monster of Florence serial killings, author Douglas Preston primarily focuses on the police and journalistic investigations that spanned almost half a century. Unfortunately, this work doesn't have the panache or build the suspense that Preston and Child's Agent Pendergast tales have. The story plods along and nearly sinks when discussing the most recent angle of investigations. Admittedly, the Italian Justice system in this case is a Gordian kno...more

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Oct 17, 2008 Xysea rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found this book good at the start, but slightly dry and disappointing. The story is compelling enough be then it meanders off into nowhere, really, and ends with the investigation stalling. So, basically they went through all of that for nothing. Sometimes, real life is stranger than fiction - but in this case, it's probably more boring than fiction would be. At the end of a fictional novel, the killer would have been unmasked and good will have triumphed over evil. In this version, the evil w...more

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Jul 09, 2008 Patty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although it started a little slow and it took a while to start keeping all the Italian names straight, this true story reads like the most exciting mystery/thriller. Douglas Preston is an internationally know best-selling author. After spending time in Florence, Italy he learns about "the monster of Florence" and along with a local reporter, decides to write a book about the monster. Along the way both of the authors are accused of being involved in the murders. I'm not spoiling anything, this i...more

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Sep 23, 2008 Patrick Collins rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: true crime lovers

Boy, did I waste money on this best seller. Other than finding out where Thomas Harris stole his story for Hannibal, and who Lector's crimes in Florence were based on, you really have to like true crime police procedurals for this to be as entertaining as advertised. But I worry for that American college student in Perugia (an honor student from Seattle) who's accused of murdering her British roommate after reading the duplicitous nature of Perugia public prosecutor and his reliance on the occul...more

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Aug 29, 2008 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although I am not a big reader of true crime, I found this particular book to be gripping – I could not put it down! Preston is a well-known writer of fiction and he applies his considerable talent to the tale at hand. The book moves along at a quick pace, although with all of the suspects, victims, witnesses and law enforcement in this book, I had to keep referring back to the handy “Cast of Secondary Characters” that Preston so thoughtfully provides in the beginning of the book. This is a non-...more

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Oct 27, 2008 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had high hopes for this one being like The Alienist by Caleb Carr, only set in Florence instead of NY. The story was incredible in that it was a true story of a longtime serial killer, the intricate (and ridiculous) Italian investigation, the involvement of an American writer (Preston), and how various members of the Italian police and law community each vied to manipulate the case to promote their personal careers. It was really engrossing and I read it in one night, but I wasn't so very inve...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Ana Rusness-petersen added it

Great book - filled with a lot of interesting historically accurate info and a couple likeable characters. This book discusses the case of the serial killer known as the Monster of Florence, who, between 1968 and 1986-ish killed a number (11 - 13) of couples "parking" in the Italian countryside. After describing the case and the details of the investigation, the reader gets a lot of information about the Italian legal system. Then, the last part of the book describes how the authors of the book,...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Shelli rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

I found parts of this to be so crazy that it was almost aggravating....more so because it is a true story. Some of things seem like they couldn't happen in this day and age, but only happened a few years ago. Italy has always been one of the places I have always wanted to visit. I still do, but this book opens your eyes to "justice" and "rights" in another country. This does show a dark side of Italy and its laws. It made mention of the Amanda Knox case and now I want to look into that a little...more

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Nov 28, 2008 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

contemp true crime/memoir ........ rating 8/10

I wasn't all that interested in the first half of this book, the part that details the crimes and has Preston and Spezi, an Italian journalist, investigating the subject of the old Florentine murders. They do this for a book basically and as they investigate, gather evidence, conduct interviews, they come to their own conclusions. This half also shows how the police and Italian investigators were desperate to find someone to convict. But every time s...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Cátia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bem, que livro extraordinário, li-o entre ontem e hoje, porque simplesmente não conseguia parar. Logo quando saiu para as bancas não me entusiasmou muito, pois não percebi bem esta história, ou se era a sério ou não.
Mas é mesmo uma história real, e que história. O livro é escrito por Douglas Preston, em parceria com Mario Spezi, um conceituado jornalista italiano especializado na área criminal, foi responsável pela cobertura dos casos mais importantes do crime italiano e acompanhou desde a décad...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology-criminology

Well done, Spezi and Preston! The co-authors of this book have crafted a cogent description of a complicated true crime case. The crimes span a period of decades, and the cast of characters covers a multi-page index which gives a handy, thumbnail description of each of them.

But don't let that deter you from diving in, this case has more turns and twists than a road winding through the hills of Tuscany. And you can't stop following the trail with them to the last page.

Two journalists - one from A...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Rick Soper rated it 4 of 5 stars

I will tell you straight up that I just don't read non-fiction books. I don't like them, I'd much rather read any fiction book than have to trudge through a non-fiction book. But this book was just incredibly fascinating. I came in a little biased because I am a fan Douglas Preston's work with Lincoln Child, but this story stand on its own. It's gruesome in that the murders that were committed were some of the most horrible I've ever read about, and the fact that they actually happened, as oppos...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Romie rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book - especially the second half - is a primary source in the investigation of an unsolved serial murder case and the odd behavior of an Italian prosecutor in the decades following. It's irreplaceable if it's a case you find interesting, and it's an account which has direct bearing on the Amanda Knox case from a few years ago.

Unfortunately, it's not a very good book, partly because it doesn't know what it wants to be - a thriller about the murders? An exploration of the Italian legal syste...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Matt Schiariti rated it 5 of 5 stars

The truth is stranger than fiction.

Even as I sit here and write this review, I have to shake my head at the events chronicled by Douglas Preston. First off, I had NO idea that he'd gone through any of this. I came upon this book by accident. Normally I don't read non-fiction, but it came up on a recommendations list and after reading the book desription here on Amazon, I had to get the book right away. And I'm glad I did!

If Preston didn't tell me that this book was a true story, I would swear th...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Carol rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of Erik Larson's Devil in the White City, serial killers, cold cases

Shelves: audio-books, true-crime, lifetime-favorites

I'm a bit behind on my thoughts on what I've read so am going to give this a quick get-go. If you're a fan of true crime then this is a must read.

I've read a few of the Preston/Child Pendergast books and love that character. I'm appreciative of the detail he can provide to his novels from his background with the Natural History Museum of New York.

Somehow I missed Monster of Florence but I'm so glad I picked it up on audio for a recent road trip with my husband. We were both mesmerized by this...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you’ve ever wanted a reason to be glad you’re an American, read “The Monster of Florence.”

Italy has the judicial system from hell, and Doug Preston and Mario Spezi describe it the way Dante did — only this time it’s a true story.

The best-selling American novelist and the hard-working Italian reporter found out just how devilish that corrupt, ethics-barren system could be when they began investigating what appears to be serial killings in the hills around Florence.

Over the course of 14 years s...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I thought this was an engrossing story with a smattering of Italian history and large doses showing the total ineptitude of the Italian police and justice system in trying to solve and identify "The Monster of Florence." The Monster committed a series of double murders from 1968 to 1985 that remain unsolved. Thomas Harris actually used some of the bizarre aspects of this case to develop his novel "Hannibal". The Italian police come up with some really absurd theories on the killings involving Sa...more

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About Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school--he was almost immediately expelled--he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two fr...more Douglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school--he was almost immediately expelled--he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two front teeth to his brother Richard's fist; and various broken bones, also incurred in dust-ups with Richard. (Richard went on to write The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, which tells you all you need to know about what it was like to grow up with him as a brother.)

As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.

After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.

In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.

Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.

Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.

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Books by Douglas Preston

The Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast, #3)

Brimstone (Pendergast, #5; Diogenes, #1)

The Book of the Dead (Pendergast, #7; Diogenes, #3)

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Quotes from The Monster of Florence

“We all have a Monster within; the difference is in degree, not in kind.” — 13 people liked it

“You cannot stare evil in the face; it has no face. It has no body, no bones, no blood. Any attempt to describe it ends in glibness and self-delusion.” — 6 people liked it

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