Douglas Preston, author of "The Wheel of Darkness" and "Basphemy" moved his family to Italy to research a novel.

While there he became involved in the mystery surrounding the serial killer known as the Monster of Florence. Joining with Mario Spezi, a longtime student of the crimes and well known reporter, Preston pursued the history of the investigation. An investigation that was so convoluted and incompetent it ranks with the greatest failures of law inforcement.

All the crimes involved the double murders of couples found on lovers lanes surrounding Florence. Over the years many individuals and groups are accused and some convicted of the crimes. Victims of this investigation include village idiots, Sardinian bandits. physicians and pharmacists. Most of individuals were victims of the ineptness of the police system and feuding between branches of the Italian judicial system.

The first half of the book follows Mario Spezi's dogged investigation of the crimes and conflicts with the police. The second part of the book reveals Preston's entrapment in the spider web of this bureaucratic incompetence. Both
writers end up being accused of various crimes, harshly interrogated. Spezi's home is ransacked and he is imprisioned. Preston is forced to leave the country.

Lives have been ruined by this Clouseau like investigation that resulted in no one really knowing who committed the crimes. This book, The Monster of Florence , is equivalent to Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi.