Magdalen Nabb – författare

Fresh new look for this bestselling book & tape featuring the Smarties prizewinner of 1995.It’s Christmas, but Irina’s family don’t have enough money to buy her the present she wants. Then Irina sees the wooden horse in the junk shop window and all she wants is to take it home with her. Irina is sad and lonely and knows that the little horse is lonely too. But what Irina doesn’t know is that this dusty little horse with the tattered mane is really an enchanted horse who comes to life and takes Irina on magical journeys.

A little toy horse is about to change Irina’s life forever.Award-winning classic young fiction, beautifully illustrated.Bella was real… Dreams don’t eat hay and drink water. Dreams don’t leave footprints in the snow.When Irina sees a tatty horse in a junk-shop window, she thinks it looks sad and lonely. Irina is an only child and wants nothing more than to take care of this horse.Little does she know how special Bella is or that magical journeys lie in wait for them!

Now with a stunning new cover, Magdelan Nabb's magical tale of Irina and her enchanted horse is a timeless classic, perfect for young readersBella was real … Dreams don't eat hay and drink water. Dreams don't leave footprints in the snow.When Irina sees a tatty horse in a junk-shop window, she thinks it looks sad and lonely. Irina is an only child and wants nothing more than to take care of this horse.Little does she know how special Bella is or that magical journeys lie in wait for them!

Introducing Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia of the Florentine carabinieri, a Sicilian stationed far from home. He wants to go south for Christmas to spend the holiday with his family, but he is laid up with the 'flu. At this awkward moment, the death of a retired Englishman is reported. A most inconvenient time for a murder case. Who has shot Mr Langley-Smythe in the back? And why has Scotland Yard felt it appropriate to send two detectives, one of whom speaks no Italian, to 'help' the marshal and his colleagues with their investigation? Most importantly for the marshal, ever the Italian, will he be able to solve the crime in time to join his family over the holiday season?This first book in the ever popular detective series is a wonderfully evocative piece of crime fiction and quasi-travel writing, as the reader is immediately transported into the heart of Florence, one of Italy's most beautiful cities.

Marshal Guarnaccia of the Florence carabinieri is first puzzled and then irritated when he is dragged into a last-ditch attempt to nail the Monster, a vicious serial killer who has ritually slaughtered seven courting couples in the most brutal of circumstances. But he is soon sucked into the horror and squalor of a multi-layered case that has confounded the authorities for over ten years. So when a case is made out against the wrong man - a monster in his own right who beats his wife and sexually abuses his daughter - who is going to admit it? Summoning the courage to speak out, the Marshal rapidly realises that no one wants to listen. It is more comfortable for everyone, even the wrongly accused man, if the blood-soaked vineyards keep their secret of what really happened on the Saturday nights of the new moon...

Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for secondary and adult students the Oxford Bookworms Library has seven reading levels from A1-C1 of the CEFR.It was a very inconvenient time for murder. Florence was full of Christmas shoppers and half the police force was already on holiday. At first it seemed quite an ordinary murder. Of course, there are always a few mysteries. In this case, the dead man had been in the habit of moving his furniture at three o'clock in the morning. Naturally, the police wanted to know why. The case became more complicated. But all the time, the answer was right under their noses. They just couldn't see it. It was, after all, a very ordinary murder.

When Marshal Guarnaccia is called upon to investigate the murder of a young woman he is convinced that there's more to the family than meets the eye, and wonders if the girl's father, Paoletti, might have had something to do with her death.Enlisting the help of a local journalist, Marshal Guarnaccia's investigations draw him into the seedy underworld of Florence - lap dancing, prostitution and the illegal human trafficking of Eastern European women who are sold into the sex trade. But can he save these women before it's too late, and what do they have to do with the killing of Daniela Paoletti? Distracted by the plight of these women and the murder investigation, Guarnaccia forgets about his own personal problems; but it's not long before he has choices to make - should he seek help and risk exposing himself and possibly losing his job, or should he go it alone?

Olivia, an American-born model, married Count Ugo Brunamonti, a feckless, soon impoverished aristocrat. After his death, she supported her children by starting a fashion house which has prospered. When she is kidnapped, the crime is reported to Marshal Guarnaccia by her daughter, who may have been the intended victim. Kidnapping is almost a second business for the Sardinians nominally engaged in raising sheep in the Tuscan hills. They inhabit a vast wilderness where a victim can be hidden away forever, and where those searching for her will be quickly spotted. The government''s official policy is not to permit the payment of ransom. But if the money isn''t paid, the kidnappers cannot let their victim go free. It would set a bad example. In this case, Guarnaccia suspects another problem. Can it be that Olivia''s children are unwilling to pay the ransom? Is this more than a random crime?

When it comes to motives for crime, the past can never be forgotten. Sara Hirsch is a nervous elderly spinster who still lives in the flat above a long-standing Florentine antiquities shop in which she was raised. Frightened, she calls Marshal Guarnaccia for help, sure that strangers have been in her apartment. The marshal knows she is a lonely old woman but he is preoccupied with an investigation into an Albanian prostitution ring. Before he can respond to her latest alarm, she is found dead. The marshal''s search for the villains who precipitated her death brings him into confrontation with the past, with Jewish refugees from fascism, and with English expatriates, including the ailing heir to the elegant Villa L''Uliveto, Sir Christopher Wrothesly-

When the body of Buongianni Corsi is found lying face down in the courtyard of the Palazzo Ulderighi there seems no doubt in the minds of his family that his death was an accident. The Marchesa, wife of the dead man, will entertain no other possibility and her power and status in the city means that Marshal Guarnaccia questions at his peril. But question he does.The death could have been suicide, or even murder. Guarnaccia knows something is not quite right, and resents being expected to go along with any possible cover up. The Palazzo is a maze of passageways, darkened corridors, locked rooms and something else, a family secret. Can he ignore his instincts and his integrity? Should he press on with the case, risk his job, and maybe more? As he paces the courtyard of the Palazzo, he is haunted by the strange piano and flute music that filters down from above, as well as by the irresistible conviction that something truly sinister has happened there...

Olivia Birkett, Ex-Model, Modedesignerin und ehemals verheiratete Contessa Brunamonti, wird entführt. Natürlich pickt sich Guarnaccias Chef die Rosinen aus dem medienwirksamen Fall, und Maresciallo Guarnaccia wird dazu abgestellt, im Palazzo Brunamonti die Tochter und den völlig verzweifelten Sohn der schon seit zehn Tagen Vermißten zu beruhigen. Doch auch auf dem Dienstbotenweg läßt sich einiges erfahren …

Florenz im Dezember: Ein fünfjähriger Junge steht starr vor Angst auf dem kalten Marmorküchenboden eines alten Patrizierhauses und traut sich nicht in sein Kinderzimmer zurück. Das Kindermädchen hat frei, die Mutter sucht Vergessen in einem langen Schlaf, der Vater ist auf Geschäftsreise. – Ein Familiendrama, dessen viele Facetten sich wie in einem Kaleidoskop erst nach und nach zu einem Bild zusammenfügen.

Florenz, kurz vor Weihnachten: Guarnaccia hat es eilig, nach Sizilien zu seiner Familie zu kommen, doch da geschieht ein Mord. Betrug und gestohlene Kunstschätze kommen ans Licht, aber sie sind nur der Hintergrund zu einer privaten Tragödie. Zu allem Übel wirft den Maresciallo noch eine schlimme Grippe um, und es ist fraglich, ob er den Mörder und den letzten Zug nach Syrakus erwischen wird.

Sie ist auf dem Revier, um ihre Freundin als vermisst zu melden. Beide sind ursprünglich zum Italienischlernen nach Florenz gekommen und dann geblieben. In einer nahe gelegenen Kleinstadt hat Monika Heer als Töp­ferin gearbeitet, doch seit drei Tagen ist sie verschwunden. Als die Leiche der jungen Frau unter einem Haufen Tonscherben entdeckt wird, ist auch Maresciallo Guarnaccia erst einmal ratlos.

Schnee im März – in Florenz etwas so Ungewöhnliches, dass niemand bemerkt, wie zwei Ausländerinnen mit vorgehaltener Pistole aus der Stadt entführt werden. Eine von ihnen taucht schnell wieder auf. Die andere, eine reiche Amerikanerin, bleibt spurlos verschwunden. Die Suche führt in die toskanischen Hügel, zu den sardischen Schafhirten – eine sehr verschlossene Gemeinschaft. Die Lösung des Falls ist so unerwartet wie Schneefall in Florenz im Frühling.