Review: DRAWING CONCLUSIONS, Donna Leon

•  format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 543 KB
• Print Length: 274 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 043402144X
• Publisher: Cornerstone Digital (April 7, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004SOZ6H6
• Source: I bought it
• #20 in the Guido Brunetti series

Synopsis (Amazon)

VENICE: CITY OF LIGHT BUT UNDERNEATH BEATS A DARK HEART.
A young woman returns from holiday to find her elderly neighbour dead on the floor. A heart attack seems the likely cause, but Commissario Brunetti is not so sure and decides to take a closer look. Soon he discovers that she was part of an organization that cares for abused women and that her apartment was a safe-house. Convinced that this is the lead he has been looking for, Brunetti begins his search for answers. But as he sets out to discover the truth behind her death, he is drawn into a decades-old story of lies and deceit that has blighted love and ruined lives - and has claimed this innocent woman as its newest victim.

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Late one night, Brunetti is suffering through a dinner with Vice Questore Patta and his nasty Lieutenant Scarpa when his telefonino rings. A old woman's body has been found in a Spartan apartment on Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio. Her neighbor discovered it when she went to pick up her mail, after having been away in Palermo. Brunetti sees some signs of force on the old woman--the obvious wound on her head, what could be a bruise near her collarbone--but they could just as easily have been from the radiator near where she fell. When the medical examiner rules that the woman died of a heart attack, it seems there is nothing for Brunetti to investigate. But he can't shake the feeling that something may have created conditions that led to her heart attack, that perhaps the woman was threatened.

Brunetti meets with the woman's son, called into the city from the mainland to identify the body, her upstairs neighbor, and the nun in charge of the old age home where she volunteered. None of these quiet his suspicions. If anything, the son's distraught, perhaps cagey behavior, a scene witnessed by the neighbor, and the nun's reluctance to tell anything, as well as her comments about the deceased's "terrible honesty,' only heighten Brunetti's notion.

With the help of Inspector Lorenzo Vianello and the ever-resourceful Signorina Elettra Zorzi, perhaps Brunetti can get to the truth, and find some measure of justice.

My Take

The two synopses above will give you a good idea of the story outline for DRAWING CONCLUSIONS.  I found it a thoroughly enjoyable read, Donna Leon at her best: raising social issues such as how we handle the abuse of women.

We are reminded too of Brunetti's social conscience. He has become a little uncomfortable with how Signorina Elettra acquires her information. He know that she uses her formidable computer skills, but suspects that she also poses as a police investigator, or at least leads people to think that she is.

The investigation into the death of the elderly lady has a surprising end, revealing another crime committed some time before.

As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed this.  My rating: 4.8

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