A Florentine Farewell

How sad to realize that Magdalen Nabb’s Death of a Dutchman, released in December, is the next-to-last book we’ll ever have about that chunky, weak-eyed, absolutely fascinating Sicilian policeman, Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia, the ultimate rustic (i.e., Southern) outsider dropped into the sleek world of Florence, Italy. Though originally published in 1982, Dutchman didn’t appear in America until this paperback edition from Soho Crime, Nabb’s loyal supporter until her death last summer.

Nabb was born in Lancashire, England, in 1947. She studied art and pottery at the College of Art in Manchester, and it was there that she started writing. While working in a pottery studio in the Italian town of Montelupo Fiorentino, Nabb came up with the idea for her most popular character, Marshal Guarnaccia. From 1975 onward, she lived and worked as a journalist and writer in Florence.

Before her death, Nabb finished the manuscript of Guarnaccia’s last case, Vita Nuova, which Soho will publish in June.