THE INNOCENT: A Marshall Guarnaccia Investigation

N.Y.: Soho Crime, 2005. 1st edition with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. "Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia is an unusual protagonist for a crime novel: he's neither a Bond-like sophisticate nor a recovering loser; a Sicilian living in Florence, he's neither on his own turf nor in a strange land. A modest family man, a quiet and calm observer--but no macho silence, mind you--he makes his way in a town he's come to know. In lovely measured language, the author unfolds the story of a woman's body found in a pond in the Boboli Gardens. The victim is unrecognizable, so it's some time before Guarnaccia, calling on an intriguing assortment of artisans and others in his neighborhood, discovers that she's Akiko, a young Japanese apprentice to the shoemaker Peruzzi. Guarnaccia digs for answers, but when he finally identifies Akiko's mysterious lover, the chief suspect in her death, the marshal for once regrets knowing the truth. While this, the 13th Marshal Guarnaccia investigation, may be short on action..., it offers such pleasures as great local atmosphere and rich characterizations." -- PW. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Book.