The Monster of Florence

This book had all the makings of a great read. It had all the things that I love: mystery, history, a cool Italian setting, and dirty little secrets.

But I was so disappointed. I have never read any of Preston's other mystery novels so I don't know how well he writes in those, but this was all journalism and no romance, too many of the wrong kinds of adjectives and a little too bloody for me. It's full of 3 page chapters that seem like they were taken directly out of Spezi's files with little to no addition of human feeling and interpretation. It seems to be lists of dates and facts and people listing suspect after suspect. I understand that the case was never solved, but it seems to be a let down in a book of this kind. The main focus of the story is supposed to be the city of Florence itself, but I never felt a part of the city. I only felt a part of the frustration that the Italian police must have felt at their continual ineptness at containing crime scenes and fingering suspects.

The book was compared to "Midnight in the Garden of Good an Evil", but never did Preston give me the feeling of the city and the people the way that Berendt did. Midnight read like a novel that just so happened to be a true story while Monster read like a newspaper archive.