Some Bitter Taste — Magdalen Nabb

Droves of people come to marshal Guarnaccia's office in the Pitti Palace to ask for help. He is doing what he can for an Albanian prostitute to keep her out of prison and get her off the streets and he wants to comfort Sarah Hirsch, a lonely and nervous woman convinced that somebody has broken into her flat. His captain wants him on the case of a minor robbery at the villa of a wealthy foreigner where he feels completely out of his depth. He is glad to turn his attention to lonely Miss Hirsch until he sees that he's too late. Her throat has been cut.