Death of an Englishman was a detective and mystery novel written by Magdalen Nabb in 2003. It narrates a murder crime in Florence city of Italy. It was before Christmas, an English gentleman named A. Langley Symthe was shot in the back in his apartment in Via Maggio 58, who seemed to be a respectable retired man. Carabiniere Bacci—— who was an inexperienced detective, was solving this case with 2 other policemen who came down from Scotland. At the same time, the Marshal who came down from Sicily, could not go back to his home town because of sickness, was also paying attention to this case. Although he did not join the majority of the investigation, this quiet observer was the one who managed to figure out what happened and why. We are going to discuss the problems of Marshal, and his triumph during solving this crime.
Firstly, the Marshal did not cooperate nicely with the other detective officers, which contributed to the delay and complexity of the case. The Marshal constantly shows an arrogant attitude to other policemen, including his assistant Carabiniere Bacci, and the other 2 English policemen. In December, when the crime just occurred, Marshal had a serious illness, which made him unable to deal with the case. He refused to communicate with others, therefore, he only knew some limited information. For instance, when Bacci first arrived in the middle of the night, when the crime just happened, Marshal got mad and yelled at Carabiniere, who directly admitted that he “did not like Marshal”. The Marshal’s cranky attitude did not win him respect, oppositely, the others were not willing to help him when he needed it.
However, the Marshal is more professional as a detective—— he could easily recognize the essential clues, and make logical speculation about the crime, which helped him to solve the case. Although Bacci and the policemen spent almost the entire month discovering this case, they were not able to focus on the vital information they had got, instead, they got confused by the massive and disordered clues. On the other hand, the Marshal took down the case even though he was sleeping most of the time in his office. Clearly, he made this because he caught the important events. For example, when the maid Martha got shot, Marshal immediately gathered Bacci to discuss with him, and found the criminal in just a few hours—— Cipolla. He has strong flexibility in his mind, which is a great triumph for a detective.
The Marshal was also a detective who listens, sees people without prejudice, and aims to solve problems, not just find murderers. Even after Cipolla admitted himself as the murderer, Marshal did not send him to the court immediately. He chose to give Cipolla a chance to explain what happened, and his life story. Cipolla grew up in a time of war, he was “on the fringes of life” all the time. He lost his family a long time ago and was never being cared about in his life. The marshal carefully observed and comforted the cleaner. He believes that Cipolla was “like a child caught on the point of stealing jam. All his reactions seemed to be on a child-like level, an imitation of the adult response, not fully developed.” The Marshal is full of empathy for the people who seem to be unnecessary to society, which has made him different from most of the detectives. Beyond logical thinking and the ability to analyse, Marshal also had strong humanistic feelings.
In conclusion, Marshal was a professional and humanistic detective, even though he did not cooperate with his colleagues nicely, but still, he was an outstanding person in the book, as the one who solved the entire problem. Cipolla committed a crime, but he was also the victim in this story. I believe, Death of an Englishman is not only a detective or thrilling book, but also a novel that intensely discovers the complication between people and their different way of thinking. No matter from which perspective, a human being can not be described simply, even if he or she is defined as a criminal—— this is what Death of an Englishman had taught me.
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