Magdalen nabb biography of martin

http://amazon.com/dp/1569473102

Elegant is the word for Nabb’s (The Monster of Florence; The Marshal at the Villa Torrini; etc.) 11th Salvatore Guarnaccia psychological police procedural, elegant in style and elegant of mind. Guarnaccia, marshal of the carabinieri, finds clues in the way people behave. His colleagues appreciate his talents, but tend to keep him on the sidelines of any investigation. For them, his greatest talent is in dealing with difficult people, questioning those reluctant to speak, calming those who refuse to be calmed. The unpretentious Sicilian sleuth, whose adopted city is Florence, has a gift for inspiring trust and encouraging others to confide in him. He also has a home life that includes a loving wife who nags him and two kids who give him problems. He is endearingly absent-minded. In the present tale, an American-born woman, Countess Olivia Brunamonti, has been kidnapped by a band of professional thugs. Italian law forbids the paying of ransom, and the family does not report the kidnapping for a week, deepening Olivia’s danger. In addition, the gang has left a false trail to a rival clan. Time, as they say, is running out. Olivia is a wonderful character. Her graphic account of her ordeal, which runs intermittently throughout the book, gives the reader a perspective on the physical and psychological seriousness of her situation. Nabb, an Englishwoman who has lived in Florence since 1975, is a fine writer with a sharp intelligence and deep sensitivity to human pain and frailty.

• The Monster of Florence

• Marshal Guarnaccia, Book 10
• By: Magdalen Nabb
• Narrated by: David Colacci
• Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
• Unabridged

• Overall

• Performance

• Story

Based on a chilling true crime, The Monster of Florence follows the reopening of a cold case - a serial killer who targeted unmarried couples and terrorized Florence for two decades....

• 5 out of 5 stars

• Smart and Satisfying

• By BAE on 11-01-13

   From this morning’s online www.booktrade.info:

      MAGDALEN NABB

Posted at 8:56AM Tuesday 21 Aug 2007:

   William Heinemann and Diogenes Verlag AG report that Magdalen Nabb sadly died suddenly at the weekend. Her funeral was held on Monday in Florence. […]

   Her novels which featured Florentine investigator Marshal Guarnaccia include Death of an Englishman, Property of Blood, and most recently, Some Bitter Taste and The Innocent.

   William Heinemann intend to publish her last novel, Vita Nuova, in 2008, with an Arrow paperback scheduled for 2009.

      BIOGRAPHY:     [Taken from her website]

   Magdalen Nabb was born in Church, a moorland village in Lancashire, England. She studied art and, later, pottery which she taught in an English art school whilst exhibiting her own work until 1975 when she moved to Florence in Italy. There, she continued to work on pottery in a majolica studio in Montelupo Fiorentino, a pottery town near Florence, and began writing. It was in Montelupo that she met the model for Marshal Guarnaccia. The town itself, with its tumbledown factories and its wonderful restaurant, are featured in The Marshal and the Murderer. She still lives and writes in Florence, near enough to the carabinieri station in the Pitti Palace to stroll there regularly and have a chat with the marshal who keeps her up to date on crime in the city. […]

   Having been a fan of Georges Simenon’s novels for as long as she can remember, she was astonished and overjoyed when Simenon wrote to congratulate her on her first novel. Their correspondence continued until his death and, until then, the first copy of each book went to him. His presence is very much missed but in difficult moments she can still get advice from him by browsing through his books

British author (1947–2007)

Magdalen Nabb (née Nuttal; 16 January 1947 – 18 August 2007) was a British author, best known for the Marshal Guarnaccia detective novels.

Early life and education

Magdalen Nuttal was born in Church, Lancashire on 16 January 1947, and was raised in Ramsbottom. She went by 'Magda' with her two sisters and parents. Both of her parents' died while she was in childhood; her father died of rheumatic fever at age 32 when she was 7, and her mother died suddenly when Nuttal was 13. She and her sisters moved in with their aunt, but within two weeks, their uncle died.

Nuttal attended the Convent Grammar School in Bury, Greater Manchester, then attended an art college in Manchester, where she studied arts and pottery.

Career

Nabb began her career teaching art at a primary school in Holcombe, Greater Manchester.

After moving to Florence in 1975, Nabb initially worked as a grape-picker and a potter before she began writing. Soon, she began working at Casa Guidi, descriptions of which she used in her first novel; she also met the physical model for Marshal Guarnaccia. Her first book, Death of an Englishman, was first published in 1981. Belgian writer Georges Simenon was impressed with the novel and reached out to Nabb, who had admired Simenon's work; the two became lifelong friends. Nabb subsequently published 12 additional crime detective novels, all of which are set in Florence, which she describes as a "very secret city". She lived near enough to the Carabinieri station at Pitti to stroll there regularly and have a chat with the marshal, who kept her up to date on crime in the city. Her final novel, Vita Nuova in the Marshal Guarnaccia series, was posthumously published in 2008.

In addition to her novels intended for adults, Nabb wrote 12 Josie Smith books for children, all of which are set in Ramsb