Kirkus Reviews QR Code
THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE by Douglas Preston

THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE

by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi

Pub Date: June 11th, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-446-58119-6
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Meticulous account of the collaboration between American thriller author Preston (Blasphemy, 2008, etc.) and Italian journalist Spezi to plumb a long-unsolved series of murders.

Between 1974 and 1985, seven couples were killed while having sex in parked cars in the hills around Florence, Preston learned shortly after he moved to Italy in August 2000. One of those double homicides occurred in an olive grove next to the stone farmhouse he had just moved into with his family. Preston’s informant was Spezi, who had covered the serial killings and dubbed their perpetrator “the Monster of Florence.” Italian authorities had charged various men with one or more of the murders. Some had been brought to trial; one had been convicted but acquitted on appeal. Looking back to a seemingly unrelated killing in 1968, Spezi believed he had determined the identity of the actual killer, and Preston bought his theory. The pair began to write a book outlining their ideas, and the Italian authorities retaliated by harassing them. In February 2006, Preston was interrogated by a police captain who accused him and Spezi of planting false evidence, then essentially told the American to get out of Italy and not come back. Spezi was arrested on April 7, 12 days before Dolci Colline di Sangue was slated to be published, accused not only of obstructing justice but of somehow being involved in the Monster of Florence murders. Three weeks later, a judicial tribunal exonerated him of all charges and he was released. The police detective and prosecutor responsible for Preston’s interrogation and Spezi’s arrest, as well as mishandling the serial-killing investigation, are awaiting trial on charges of abuse of office. With so many characters and so many theories about the case, the book is sometimes difficult to follow, and Preston’s flat prose does little to help. He is a likable narrator, however, and his commitment to untrammeled press freedom is inspiring.

A cautionary saga about how the criminal-justice system can spin out of control.