King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: The Monster of Florence

authors: Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi



published: 2008

genre: non fiction

pages: 322

first line: The morning of June7, 1981, dawned brilliantly clear over Florence, Italy.

rated: 4 out of 5

When author Douglas Preston moved his family to Florence he never expected he would soon become obsessed and entwined in a horrific crime story whose true-life details rivaled the plots of his own bestselling thrillers. While researching his next book, Preston met Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist who told him about the Monster of Florence, Italy's answer to Jack the Ripper, a terror who stalked lovers' lanes in the Italian countryside. The killer would strike at the most intimate time, leaving mutilated corpses in his bloody wake over a period from 1968 to 1985. One of these crimes had taken place in an olive grove on the property of Preston's new home. --Brad Thomas Parsons

I received a copy of The Monster of Florence when I won 14 books from Hatchette. I found this book to be morbid and twisted, yet I had to finish reading it. The Monster of Florence was hard to swallow at times, being that it is based on true crimes. I skipped over the parts that go into details about the murders, but it was interesting to read about the investigation and the leads in the case.
It's my first time reading a book like this.




The book is divided into two sections. In one half author Douglas Preston speaks, then in the other half of the book, Italian journalist Mario Spezi talks about The Monster and the investigation.





Mario Spezi wrote for the Italian newspaper called 'La Nazione'. Spezi winds up having to see a psychiatrist, his working on this horrific case for so long messes with his mind and he feels like he is going to go insane at one point. Spezi spent years working and reporting about this case, he is known as 'The Monstrologer' because he is a well-known expert on the case and never gave up trying to find the killer.




Douglas Preston is an American writer who moves to Florence with his wife and two daughters. He soon learns about The Monster and becomes good friends with Spezi. The two men begin to investigate the case together.




The Monster of Florence began killing couples who were parked in their cars in the hills during the late 1960's through the mid 1980's. In Italy young couples still needed to be married before they could live together, so it was a common pastime for couples to park thier cars in the countryside to have some private time.




It was well known that couples parked, and it was also well known that there were peeping toms out there watching them. Several people had been taken in by the police for questioning, as well as some of these peeping toms. The first man arrested was well known for spying on couples. But, while he was in the jail, the murderer struck again.

When La Nazione broke the news, it caused a sensation, It meant that a serial killer was stalking the Florentine hills.

The investigation that followed lifted the lid off a bizarre underworld that few Florentines knew existed in the lovely hills surrounding their city.

As the years passed, several men were arrested for being thought to be The Monster, and the investigators ended up thinking that there was more than one killer; that this was a group of men commiting the murders. Several men were arrested, then later released. The Monster became infamous in Italy, thousands of mail arrived to the police, with tips and sightings of the killer. Just when the people of Florence thought they were safe, and that The Monster was in jail, another murder would occur.


And the monster himself mailed a cryptic letter to the police, with a piece of one of his victims.



There were several leads and arrests, but The Monster of Florence was never caught. All they could do was guess as to the killers mind and thought process behind his actions. They profiled him. They began to think that he was impotent, that he may have come from an abusive home and that he was skilled with a knife. He would shoot his victims then mutilate the females. They also thought he lived with an older woman, who may have known he was the killer.



When these murders were first occuring, the police and reporters were inadvertently ruining the forensic evidence at the crime scenes. Back then they weren't as advanced with forensics and DNA testing as they are now. So the evidence was either lost or ruined, or not even tested out for clues.



Then the main investigators on the case changed a few times, several people were accused, jailed, then later released, even a satanic cult was to blame at one point.
All kinds of crazy stories and conspiracy theories came into place. One man, an abuser and rapist, was tried and jailed for being The Monster. But years later, he was released, however Spezi never ruled out that this man had some kind of connection to the real killer.

When the Monster of Florence arrived, Florentines faced the killings with disbelief, anguish, terror, and a kind of sick fascination. They cimply could not accept that their exquisitely beautiful city, the physical expression of the Renaissance, the very cradle of Western civilization, could harbor such a monster.

Most of all, they could not accept the idea that the killer might be one of them.

As I said, The Monster of Florence was hard to stomach. I'm the type of reader that really gets into the book I'm reading. I have an overactive imagination as it is, and reading a book like this was difficult. There were times I needed to put it away, it was just too much. Knowing that these people were really murdered made it hard to read. There are photos included of the people who were killed, as well as the people arrested and those involved in the investigation, including the men who were thought to be The Monster.







Interesting fact:


The book Hannibal by Thomas Harris, was inspired by The Monster of Florence.





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Do you think you are up to reading The Monster of Florence? If so, let me know under the comments section, I am raffling off my copy of this book to one of my blog readers.

To enter to win (U.S. and Canada residents only please):

1. post a comment to this post, leave me your email adress

2. for a better chance of winning, blog about this post and i'll enter your name an extra time in the drawing.

3. I will pick a name on October 16th

good luck!