The Monster of Florence
by Douglas Preston
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Book Reviews of The Monster of Florence
Book Review: Not recommended
Summary: 2 Stars
Horrific murders in Florence lead to a very boring book. I wanted to like this book and didn't want to write an unflattering review. Unfortunately, I couldn't do the former and must do the latter. I've often found that reading the negative reviews can be the most helpful but if this review doesn't dissuade you from reading (or purchasing) the book, at least you'll have a counter point to some of the more positive feedback.
Without completely rehashing the book for you, the story covers 3 or 4 decades of unsolved murders in Tuscany, the region surrounding Florence. Preston describes the murders - possibly committed by a serial killer or killers, the grossly incompetent police work, and one member the Italian press' (Spezi) efforts to report the details. Preston joins the effort after moving to Italy much later (with the intention of writing a book) and contributes absolutely nothing. Incompetence is a key to this story and unfortunately for the reader once Preston locked on to this central theme he apparently thought to himself, "Why change a good thing"?
I enjoy true crime stories when the author knows how to tell the story (e.g, In Cold Blood by Capote) but that's not the case here; the book comes across as an uninspired effort. A "page turner" it's not and I had to force myself to get through it (skipped a little as I tried to ease my suffering). Once you've read the first half, you might as well put it down. It's full of meaningless and truly irrelevant minutia and "facts" presented with unrelenting and boring repetition. You'll feel beaten with phrases such as "picnicking friends" and if you missed something the first 20 times, don't worry, Preston will return and beat you - mercilessly - with the same thing in another few pages. When you're simply trying to fill pages with words, this is one way to do it..
Publishers often hold authors to commitments such as "deliver a 300+ page book", and Preston delivered. With only 100 pages of real material though we now have 200+ extra, and very boring, pages.
Summing up in a few words the book is boring, chaotic, and tedious. I listened to the audio version (and yes, the affected Italian voices are wearing) but whether you read or listen, you'll never get the hours of your life back that you wasted wading through this morass. I'd suggest everyone skip it; it's a 1.25 star book (that's one star for the effort of collecting information and another 1/4 star for execution) but it gets a two under Amazon's rating limitations. Read the reviews but skip the book; you won't miss a thing. Not recommended.
Book Review: Great Study of a Murderer
Summary: 4 Stars
The Monster of Florence isn't like most true crime novels. In this one, the author actually has a part to play in the narrative. It's amazing to me that this case was never popularized in North America. Like the Zodiac Killer or Jack The Ripper, this is a strange and bizarre case that was never solved and probably never will be.
In beautiful Tuscany, a killer preys on couples making love in their cars. He kills them, shooting the man and mutilating the woman before running away with pieces from the scene as a trophy. There have been many theories over the year, but the identity of the killer was never found. With murders ranging between the 60s all the way to the mid 80s, this is one story that has more bizarre twists than any other.
As the author, Douglas Preston, moves to Italy with his family, he quickly befriends a journalist named Spezi while doing research for a novel he wants to write. It is Spezi who tells him the story of the Monster of Florence. The first half of the novel is dedicated to the facts of the story; the various murders, the various accusations, the various arrestations. The first half of the novel is very well researched and written like a novel itsel; full of suspense and mystery.
It is in the second half that the story takes a turn for the bizarre. In the 90s and 2000s, the investigation on the murders is still going strong, even though the Monster hasn't been active in nearly twenty years. Spezi, with all of his research and having done his own private investigation, is almost certain he knows the true identity of the killer. The novel even gives us a direct interview with this suspect. But since his views differs from the one of the police (who, amazingly enough, believe that the killer is actually a dark satanic cult who practices dark magic) and investigators, this will soon cause both authors problems.
Soon enough, Spezi himself is accused of being the Monster while Preston, the author, is accused of being an accessory to the murders. The second part of the novel is about Spezi's arrestation and the weird and twisted ways in which the Italian police system works.
Never disappointing, written as though it was a novel, The Monster of Florence doesn't offer a single boring moment. If done right, this story could be turned into an incredible film. Are all the facts presented in this novel true? Who knows? But unlike many other true-crime novel that tries to unmask the true face of a serial killer, this one has a theory that is hard to refute. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Review
Summary: 4 Stars
The Monster of Florence is based on a true story. The story is surrounding numerous killing that took place in Florence, Italy that transpired in the late seventies and early eighties. The killer was dubbed "The Monster of Florence". By the time the year 1984 had rolled around, the Monster was the most talked about killer in the world. Around the same time, the killer had already killed about seven couples that the police knew about anyways. The killings went on for many years. The search for the Monster of Florence became one of the longest man hunts.
I have to admit that this is the first time I had ever heard about The Monster of Florence. Having said that, from what I heard about the accounts...I thought that Mario Spezi, a former crime correspondent and then newspaper reporter for La Nazione could be credited as one of the most influential people to help bring to light that Italy had a killer on its hands.
Author, Douglas Preston and his family were living in Italy for a while in the year 2000. This is where Mr. Preston first learned about The Monster of Florence as the olive grove behind the place they were living at, was the site of one of the murders. Douglas became intrigued by this information and seeked to learn all he could about this famous killer. Mr. Preston decided to go right to the source that could help him fill in the blanks...Mario Spezi. Together Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi met and set out to finally find the truth about who really was The Monster of Florence. In doing so, Mario Spezi was accused of involvement in the killings; in addition to Mr. Preston being accused of obstruction of justice, planting evidence and even being an accomplish to murder. Because of this, Mr. Preston can no longer return to Italy.
I listened to the audio version of this book. I have to say that while I found the recounting of this true story to be fascinating...if I had been reading the book, I know that I would not be agreeing with what I am saying now. This is due to Dennis Boutsikaris, who brought to life this story for me. I have always found true crime stories to be interesting. I have even tried reading a few of these types of books. I would find myself skimming over some of the parts in the book; because I would find them almost too much detail and it would start to bore me. I know this probably doesn't make much sense. I am happy to comment through I have found a new way to enjoy these books in the form of audio books.
Book Review: A chilling page-turner!
Summary: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (7/08)
Author Douglas Preston, his wife Christine, and their two children Isaac and Aletheia, moved to Florence, Italy in the year 2000. As a journalist and a murder mystery author, Preston had the freedom to live wherever he wanted and it had always been a lifelong dream of his to move to Italy. They rented a farmhouse in the olive groves at the end of a dirt lane and he began research on his next novel. A friend of Preston's put him in contact with Mario Spezi (the co-author of this book), a crime reporter for over 20 years. Preston was interested in talking to Spezi because he wanted to learn more about Italian police procedure and murder investigation so that the novel that he was working on would be factually accurate.
It was this first meeting with Spezi that introduced Preston to the murders committed by "The Monster of Florence." Coincidentally, Preston's farmhouse happens to be right near the scene of one of the slayings. From the years of 1974-1985, fourteen young lovers were murdered while parked in the hills around Florence. Despite being the most expensive and longest running investigation in Italian history, the murderer has never been found. Spezi shares with Preston the information that he has about the crimes and takes him around to the murder sites. They dig to try to uncover the truth but their probing may lead to more than they bargained for.
One of the things that surprised me most was that the story of "The Monster of Florence" was pretty much unknown in the United States, especially considering the fact that the FBI was involved in the investigation. It is also interesting to note that Spezi believes that Thomas Harris' character of Hannibal Lecter was based on "The Monster of Florence." In fact, Spezi even saw Harris at one of the trials taking notes.
I really enjoy true crime stories and found the story of "The Monster of Florence" to be very fascinating and intriguing. It was interesting to read how the original investigation into the murders was handled and learning about the missteps along the way. The writing in the book is definitely not for the faint of heart as the gruesome murders are described in great detail, but anyone who enjoys true crime stories will most surely enjoy this book
Book Review: Multi- Faceted Work of Non-Fiction!
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Monster of Florence" is a fabulous gem of nonfiction writing! I read this book over the past weekend and could hardly put it down because the writing and storyline were completely engrossing & enthralling. This book is truly captivating on so many levels:
* Great writing by both Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi. Spezi, himself, is an Italian journalist considered an expert on the topic of "The Monster of Florence" since he's written about the monster from the beginning.
* The authors seem to have really done their home work on the topic of "The Monster of Florence": From telling us about the murders themselves, police investigations, trials that were more like 3 ring circuses, media attention to the case, and even the police going as far as to arresting Mario Spezi & questioning Douglas Preston!
* This book is well organized & flows nicely throughout with no dull or slow parts of the book. In fact, the book isn't too long or too short, but just right in terms of length. Basically, a tightly written book.
* "The Monster of Florence" reads more like a novel.... Sometimes the facts seem stranger than fiction!! Especially with regards to the lack of competency by the Italian police/criminal investigators and the Italian justice system at large.... It is truly unfathomable at how inept the the criminal investigators & Italian justice system has been in this case....
* I also enjoyed the authors insight into the cultural view points of Italians themselves. Something we don't hear or learn about much.
The crimes of "The Monster of Florence" are gruesome and have gone unresolved by the Italian Government. The authors make a great case as to whom they think the real "The Monster of Florence's" identity really is. I would have to say that with all the information Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi have presented in their book about "The Monster of Florence", I would have to agree with their summation of the serial killer's identity. Surely they are closer to the truth of the matter then the police/investigators are.