Monsterous

The book for this week's review is the Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi. The book tells the story of the search for the "Monster of Florence", a serial killer of several couples in Florence over about a 15 year period. Mario Spezi is a crime journalist that covered the Monster killings for the onset and as a result is considered an expert on the crimes. Douglas Preston (an author of thrillers) moves to Florence with his family and learns (from Spezi) that the house that he has rented is near the site of one of the killings perpetrated by the Monster of Florence. Preston and Spezi decide to write a book about the killings and discover that the people of Florence have a short-term memory when is comes to the killings. And that was the most interesting part about the crime because it was never really resolved (not everyone was convinced that the murder was caught). It was interesting to hear about the investigation and how it was so obviously shaped by the people in charge. And how the Italian government (and the police force) can control the press (journalist can be charged for hampering prosecution through the press). But I did learn a cool Italian term. During one (of the many trials about the Monster of Florence), one of the friends of the suspect keeps saying that he doesn't know the suspect very well, they were just "picnicing friends" and to this day, this term is used to described friends that are involved in sordid doings. I enjoyed this book that explored a well know European crime that is not known very well in the US and apparently Thomas Harris borrowed some the details about the Monster of Florence for his Hannibal Lector novels. And this book made the news when Mario Spezi was arrested and jailed for crimes relating to the Monster of Florence (which just shows how sensitive to these crimes).