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Sunday

A mostly lazy day. I've got laundry going.

Reading: I've been reading a lot last night and today. I finished the Maitland, A COMPANY OF LIARS. Well done. Not a mystery per se but more of a gothic-ish low-level suspense thing with members of the troup dying (and not by the Black Death that is engulfing the country) and the perpetrator who is indeed very fiendish and manipulative. Glad I read it. Next up, either the David Liss or maybe STRANGE BLOOD by Lindsay Jayne Ashford or maybe back to the Crosby.

Listening to THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE. Here's the blurb from Publisher Weekly:

United in their obsession with a grisly Italian serial murder case almost three decades old, thriller writer Preston (coauthor, Brimstone) and Italian crime reporter Spezi seek to uncover the identity of a vicious serial killer in this chilling true crime saga. The murders took place outside of Florence where Preston had moved with his family. From 1974 to 1985, seven pairs of lovers parked in their cars in secluded areas were brutally killed. With all of the chief suspects acquitted or released from prison on appeal, the authors began to snoop around, although witnesses had died and evidence was missing. Preston and Spezi's sleuthing continued until ruthless
prosecutors turned on the nosy pair, jailing Spezi and grilling Preston for obstructing justice. Only when Dateline NBCbecame involved in the maze of mutilated bodies and police miscues was the authors' hard work rewarded. This suspenseful procedural reveals much about the dogged writing team as well as the motives of the killers. Better than some overheated noir mysteries, this bit of real-life Florence bloodletting makes you sweat and think, and presses relentlessly on the nerves.

Though I'm listening to the audio read by Dennis Boutsikaris, the book has 322 pages, the audio is 8 cds long. Here's the first paragraph:

The morning of June 7, 1981, dawned brilliantly clear over Florence, Italy. It was a quiet Sunday with blue skies and a light breeze out of the hills, which carried into the city the fragrance of sun-warmed cypress trees. Mario Spezi was at his desk at La Nazione , where he had worked as a reporter for several years, smoking and reading the paper. He was approached by the reporter who usually handled the crime desk, a legend at the paper who had survived twenty years of covering the Mafia.

TV: The Cowboys are playing now (and better win) and the Steelers play tonight so that's probably the tv we've got going on for the rest of the day really.

In a little bit we'll go walk Tug. It is only supposed to get up to 60 today and maybe some showers this evening like last evening and has been cloudy most of the day -- little bit of sunshine earlier. I'll make hamburger rice later; that will be good to give Steve some leftovers for lunch a couple days.