DEATH OF AN ENGLISHMAN First published by Collins, London, 1981 Availability: Now published by W. Heinemann, London, as an Arrow paperback, £5.99 and by Soho Press, New York $12

DEATH OF AN ENGLISHMAN
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The first Marshal Guarnaccia book. Christmas in Florence and the marshal has ‘flu but he is dragged from his feverish sleep: a respectable, retired Englishman has been found dead, shot in the back, in his flat. A safe is filled with cash in various currencies and, according to his neighbour, normal people don’t change their furniture every week. The arrival of two officers from Scotland yard suggests that the late Mr Langley Smythe was well connected but the two have little else to offer beyond an appetite for Florentine cuisine.

‘Guarnaccia is one of fiction’s most satisfying detectives, a man whose domestic life is as fascinating as his cases...the series began with Death of an Englishman and is distinguished by its superb sense of place.’ The Times ‘One Hundred Masters of Crime.’