What: Marshal Guarnaccia has the flu and just wants to go join his family in Sicily for the holidays. Unfortunately, the flu has been going around the police department and since it is the holidays, the Florentine caribineiri is very short-staffed. So it's the quiet, self-deprecating marshal who ends up with a murder to solve. This is the first book in Magdalen Nabb's Marshal Guarnaccia series. With so many suspense novels about smug detectives who can't be confined by the system, it's a relief to have a series with a protagonist who's a bit insecure.
Comparable to: The intelligent marshal is a more diffident, lower-ranking version of Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn. But the books themselves are reminiscent of Simenon or Camilleri.
Representative quote: "Watch him and listen to him, and don't try to be too clever."
You might not like it if: You prefer your detectives to be spontaneous and so sure of themselves they don't listen to anyone else.
How to get it: Soho Crime has issued some excellent editions of Nabb's books. Death of an Englishman is also Kindle-able.
Connection to previous Wreckage: Roderick Alleyn can be marveled at in Death and the Dancing Footman (Rec. #37) and Night at the Vulcan (Rec. #102).
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