I have not yet read any of his fiction, but I understand that Douglas Preston is an accomplished and highly successful writer of mysteries and thrillers. Even so, it is difficult to believe that he, or any other fiction writer for that matter, could be capable of producing a plot as fantastical, as incredible, as rich with intrigue, grotesque characters and narrative twists as that of the story of The Monster of Florence, which is published in the UK this month by Virgin Books.
But the story of the Monster is true, and as Preston acknowledges in this superb book, a fiction writer would be unlikely to get away with publishing a story as improbable as this.
The Monster of Florence is essentially a story of two parts: the serial killing of seven pairs of young lovers over the course in the hills surrounding Florence between 1974 and 1985 and the initial investigation into it; and then the ludicrous investigations that followed long after the killings stopped and the eventual involvement of both authors, as witnesses and even suspects in the investigation as they neared publication of the book.
The serial killings in the Florentine hills became an international sensation for a number of reasons. Primarily perhaps this was the thought of such brutal murders was so totally at odds with the global perception of Florence as one of the world's most extraordinarily beautiful and culturally rich cities. This is the CIty of David and Venus, the Bargello and the Uffizi, the Boboli gardens and the Ponte Vecchio. How could something so vulgar, so violent take place in such a paradise?
But the killings also revealed a fascinating, sordid underbelly to Florence: young couples having sex in cars the hills because there was nowhere private at home; legions of voyeurs watching them from the bushes; Sardinian clan business spilling over on to the mainland; and then to top it all off a fabulously bad investigation that only briefly threatened to uncover the real killer before descending into a corrupt farce.
The first half of the book offers Spezi's story of the killings and investigations. As the primary crime reporter on the regional newspaper he visited a number of scenes, witnessing sights few would ever choose to see. As the newspapers's "Monsterologist" as he became known he had unique access to the investigation and often was well ahead of the investigators in terms of information and even insight.
At this stage the investigation is merely incompetent: unfocused, badly led, ignoring even some of the most fundamental rules of investigation. It is a fascinating story, told in a commendably detached manner. During the first half the writing team of Spezi and Preston largely resist the temptation to indulge in editorialising the story.
No such restraint is possible in the second half when the Italian investigators, having turned their backs on the only logical line of inquiry descend into a lunatic fantasy land of murders perpetrated by peasants in the grip of satanic cults coordinated by the great and the good. If this were not crazy enough they actually manage to secure convictions based on these B-movie scenarios with the flimsiest of evidence.
By this time Preston is in Florence, realising a lifelong ambition to live in Italy and, rapt by the story of monster, has agreed to write this book in partnership with Spezi. At first Preston finds the incompentence and the corruption amusing, but as Spezi, and eventually he himself, find themselves interrogated as part of the sham investigation he begins to understand just how corrupt and dangerous Italy's criminal justice system is.
It is a terrific story, extremely well told full of fascinating insight into Italy and the Italians and in particular into the criminal justice system and the ambition, greed and jealousy that drives it off into a bizarre shady hinterland of half truths, conspiracy theories and absolute corruption.
The story is so bizarre in many respects that you really could not make it up. It is gripping and fascinating in that car-crash-rubberneck kind of way and Preston and Spezi make great narrators. If you'd like a change from crime fiction, give the Monster of Florence a chance. It won't let you down.
