Review: UNIFORM JUSTICE, Donna Leon

• 
  This edition a book from my local library
  
• Published by Penguin Books 2004
• ISBN 978-0-09-953665-9
• 326 pages
• #12/33 in the Brunetti series  

Synopsis (publisher)

When a young cadet is found hanged at a military academy, Commissario Brunetti's investigation entangles him in the strange and stormy politics of Venice's powerful elite

Neither Commissario Brunetti nor his wife Paola have ever had much sympathy for the Italian armed forces, so when a young cadet is found hanged, at Venice's elite military academy, Brunetti's emotions are complex: pity and sorrow at the death of a boy close in age to his own son, and contempt and irritation for the arrogance and high-handedness of the boy's teachers and fellow students.

The young man is the son of an ex-politician, a man of an impeccable integrity all too rare in Italian politics. But as Brunetti - and the indispensable Signorina Elettra - investigate further, no one seems willing to talk. Is this the natural reluctance of Italians to involve themselves with the authorities, or is Brunetti facing a conspiracy of silence?

My Take

This case sits very badly with Guido Brunetti. He can't accept that a 17 year old with his life before him would commit suicide, and he doesn't like the way his fellow students are so non-commital about the boy. Brunetti also thinks there is something very wrong with the reaction of the boy's father to his son's death.

A very thought provoking read which tells you a lot about Brunetti's principles and the way the system works. 

My rating: 4.7 

I've also read

ABOUT FACE

THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF

4.5, BEASTLY THINGS

4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP

3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE

4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

4.5, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS, Donna Leon - abridged audio version

4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY

4.7, BY ITS COVER

4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE

4.8, THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH

4.5, FALLING IN LOVE

4.8, EARTHLY REMAINS

4.6, TRANSIENT DESIRES - #30

4.7, SO SHALL YOU REAP - #32 

4.6, GIVE UNTO OTHERS - #31

4.6, A REFINER'S FIRE - #33 

 

Review: A REFINER'S FIRE, Donna Leon

• 
  This edition a large print hard back published 2024 by Grove Atlantic
• ISBN-13 978-1-4205-1474-2
  
• 420 pages
• #33 in Brunetti series 

Synopsis (publisher)

In the thirty-third installment of Donna Leon’s magnificent series, Commissario Guido Brunetti confronts a present-day Venetian menace and the ghosts of a heroism that never was
Around one AM on an early spring morning, two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s squares. Commissario Claudia Griffoni, on duty that night, perhaps ill-advisedly walks the last of the boys home because his father, Dario Monforte, failed to pick him up at the Questura. Coincidentally, Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy friend of Vice-Questore Patta to vet Monforte for a job, triggering Brunetti’s memory that twenty years earlier Monforte had been publicly celebrated as the hero of a devastating bombing of the Italian military compound in Iraq. Yet Monforte had never been awarded a medal either by the Carabinieri, his service branch, or by the Italian government.

That seeming contradiction, and the brutal attack on one of Brunetti’s colleagues, Enzo Bocchese, by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti’s attentions. Surprisingly empowered by Patta, supported by Signorina Elettra’s extraordinary research abilities and by his wife, Paola’s, empathy, Brunetti, with Griffoni, gradually discovers the sordid hypocrisy surrounding Monforte’s past, culminating in a fiery meeting of two gangs and a final opportunity for redemption. 

My Take

A very complex novel with the author using as background Italy's involvement as peace keepers in Iraq and the appearance of "baby gangs" in Venice. (see below)

It is also about how reputations are created, how the truth is not always seen, how the truth is whitewashed by journalists and authorities.   

I also enjoyed a number of elements of humour generated by the relationship between Brunetti, his boss Vice Questore Patta, and Signorina Elettra.  I do think those who haven't read many in the series might find it difficult to enjoy this book as much as I have.

Groups of minors are meeting in the late afternoon on via Poerio and venting their anger in Chinese shops. In the evening they gather there to buy and use drugs.

December 8, 2023

Groups of youth who provoke people on the street or go into shops to cause confusion and knock over the merchandise on display for fun are back. Especially in businesses run by Chinese citizens. Every time it happens, a fight ensues which ends with the Chinese man pushing the kids out and calling the police. see more. 

I was particularly interested in the meaning of the title. (Clue: Monforte's last words to Brunetti: "He thinks I'm a hero". and finally he is, and that is how he will be remembered.)

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

• ABOUT FACE
• THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
• THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
• 4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
• 4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
• 4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
• 3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
• 4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
• 4.5, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS, Donna Leon - abridged audio version
• 4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
• 4.7, BY ITS COVER
• 4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE
• 4.8, THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH
• 4.5, FALLING IN LOVE
• 4.8, EARTHLY REMAINS
• 4.6, TRANSIENT DESIRES - #30
• 4.7, SO SHALL YOU REAP - #32 
• 4.6, GIVE UNTO OTHERS - #31  

Review: GIVE UNTO OTHERS, Donna Leon

• 
   this edition large print from Gale at Thorndike Press, published 2022
  
•  ISBN-13 978-1-4328-9727-7
• 452 pages
• Brunetti series, Book 13

Synopsis (publisher)

What role can or should loyalty play in the life of a police inspector? It’s a question Commissario Guido Brunetti must face and ultimately answer in Give Unto Others, Donna Leon’s splendid 31st installment of her acclaimed Venetian crime series.

Brunetti is approached for a favor by Elisabetta Foscarini, a woman he knows casually, but her mother was good to Brunetti’s mother, so he feels obliged to at least look into the matter privately, and not as official police business. Foscarini’s son-in-law, Enrico Fenzo, has alarmed his wife (her daughter) by confessing their family might be in danger because of something he’s involved with. Since Fenzo is an accountant, Brunetti logically suspects the cause of danger is related to the finances of a client. Yet his clients seem benign: an optician, a restaurateur, a charity established by his father-in-law. However, when his friend’s daughter’s place of work is vandalized, Brunetti asks his own favors—that his colleagues Claudia Griffoni, Lorenzo Vianello, and Signorina Elettra Zorzi assist his private investigation, which soon enough turns official as they uncover the dark and Janus-faced nature of a venerable Italian institution.

Exploring the wobbly line between the criminal and non-criminal, revealing previously untold elements of Brunetti’s past, Give Unto Others shows that the price of reciprocity can be steep. 

My Take

I've named Donna Leon as one of the international award winning crime fiction authors for my U3A Crime Fiction readers group to look for. This is the 18th one that I have written about on this blog (since 2008).

The story is set in 2020, and Venice is bearing the impact of Covid 19: businesses have closed, there are no tourist boats, and many people are still wearing masks. There is actually little crime although gangs of kids are ransacking closed shops. Brunetti and others have time on their hands.

So when he is approached by someone he barely remembers from his childhood he decides to launch an unofficial investigation. But the longer this goes on, the more people are involved and the more complex everything becomes. 

One of Italy's big problems in 2020 is the collapse of investment schemes and many people are investigating alternative things to do with their money. Funds are flowing out of the Mafia and others into money laundering schemes. This is the background this book is set against. 

My rating:: 4.6 

I've also read

• ABOUT FACE
• THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
• THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
• 4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
• 4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
• 4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
• 3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
• 4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
• 4.5, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS, Donna Leon - abridged audio version
• 4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
• 4.7, BY ITS COVER
• 4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE
• 4.8, THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH
• 4.5, FALLING IN LOVE
• 4.8, EARTHLY REMAINS
• 4.6, TRANSIENT DESIRES - #30
• 4.7, SO SHALL YOU REAP - #32 

Review: SO SHALL YOU REAP, Donna Leon

• 
  This edition made available by my local library
  
• published by Hutchinson Heinemann UK 2023
• ISBN 978152153323
• 262 pages
• #32 in Commissario Brunetti series
  

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice's canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Because no official record of the man's presence in Venice exists, Brunetti is forced to use the city's far richer sources of information: gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim. Curiously, he had been living in a garden house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professor, in which Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim's interest in Buddhism, the revolutionary Tamil Tigers, and the last crop of Italian political terrorists, active in the 1980s.

As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni, and Signorina Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle-random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships-that appear to have little in common. Until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.

My Take

Looking over The Fantastic Fiction list of the Brunetti series, I was surprised to see how many I have missed. The first in the series was published in 1992 and have continued at the rate of about one per year. That makes it a rather daunting list to read if you have never read any, as I am going to assert that you should read them in order. Not only do the books focus on contemporary Venetian social and political problems, there is also a very nice development of Brunetti and his family over time.

I've got to the stage where reading a Brunetti is rather like catching up with an old friend.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
4.5, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS, Donna Leon - abridged audio version
4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
4.7, BY ITS COVER
4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE
4.8, THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH
4.5, FALLING IN LOVE
4.8, EARTHLY REMAINS - #26

4.6, TRANSIENT DESIRES - #30     

Commissario Brunetti Mysteries (Fantastic Fiction)

1. Death at La Fenice (1992)
2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
3. The Anonymous Venetian (1994)
4. Death and Judgment (1995)
5. Acqua Alta (1996)
6. Quietly in Their Sleep (1997)
7. A Noble Radiance (1998)
8. Fatal Remedies (1999)
9. Friends in High Places (2000)
10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
11. Willful Behaviour (2002)
12. Uniform Justice (2003)
13. Doctored Evidence (2004)
14. Blood from a Stone (2005)
15. Through a Glass Darkly (2006)
16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)
17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)
18. About Face (2009)
19. A Question of Belief (2010)
20. Drawing Conclusions (2011)
21. Beastly Things (2012)
22. The Golden Egg (2012)
23. By Its Cover (2014)
24. Falling in Love (2015)
25. The Waters of Eternal Youth (2016)
26. Earthly Remains (2017)
27. The Temptation of Forgiveness (2018)
28. Unto Us a Son Is Given (2019)
29. Trace Elements (2020)
30. Transient Desires (2021)
31. Give Unto Others (2021)
32. So Shall You Reap (2023)

Review: TRANSIENT DESIRES, Donna Leon

• 
  this edition published by William Heinemann 2021
  
• ISBN 978-1-785-152627
• 172 pages
• Commissario Brunetti #30

Synopsis (publisher)

The landmark thirtieth instalment of the global bestselling Commissario Brunetti series

When two young American women are badly injured in a boating accident, joy riding in Venice's Laguna with two young Italians, Commissario Guido Brunetti's curiosity is aroused by the behaviour of the young men, who abandoned the victims after taking them to the hospital.

As Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, investigate, they discover that one of the young men works for a man rumoured to be involved in more sinister night-time activities in the Laguna. To get to the bottom of the mystery, Brunetti needs to enlist the help of both the Carabinieri and the Guardia Costiera. Determining how much trust he and Griffoni can put in these unfamiliar colleagues only adds to the difficulty of solving this peculiarly horrible crime.

Donna Leon's landmark thirtieth Brunetti novel is as powerful as any she has written, testing Brunetti to his limits, forcing him to listen very carefully for the truth.

My Take

As always Donna Leon uses Brunetti as her mouthpiece with his reflections about what is happening to Venice: the effects of the tourist industry on the local economy, the flooding of the streets, the reduction of the local population, the lack of work for young people, the influence of the Mafia, and the impact of drug smuggling, and people trafficking.

Brunetti's nose takes him out of the streets of Venice, following some events that don't seem quite right to him. Why didn't the young men who took the American girls to the hospital stay there with them? Why did they abandon them? That scenario drives Brunetti's intuition, as he begins to wonder about one of the young men in particular, what he has to hide.

It is 4 years since I read one in this series, and I see that there are 3 titles that I have missed (which I must catch up with). There is some acknowledgement of the pandemic in this book, but not a lot. Mainly in the fact that there have been few tourist boats. The main characters are there, including Brunetti's family, but Brunetti himself seems a little tireder.

A good read.

My rating: 4.6

About the Author

Donna Leon was named by The Times as one of the 50 Greatest Crime Writers. She is an award-winning crime novelist, celebrated for the bestselling Brunetti series. Donna has lived in Venice for thirty years and previously lived in Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China, where she worked as a teacher. Donna’s books have been translated into 35 languages and have been published around the world. Her previous novels featuring Commissario Brunetti have all been highly acclaimed; including Friends in High Places, which won the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, Fatal Remedies, Doctored Evidence, A Sea of Troubles and Beastly Things. 

I've also read

ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
4.5, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS, Donna Leon - abridged audio version
4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
4.7, BY ITS COVER
4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE
4.8, THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH
4.5, FALLING IN LOVE
4.8, EARTHLY REMAINS

 

Review: DRAWING CONCLUSIONS, Donna Leon - audio book

• audio book from Audible.com
• Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
• Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
• Abridged
• Release date: 04-07-11
• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Audiobooks

Synopsis (Audible.com)

When Anna Maria Giusti returns from holiday to find her elderly neighbour Constanza Altavilla dead, with blood on the floor near her head, she immediately alerts the police. Commissario Brunetti is called to the scene and it seems the woman has suffered a fatal heart attack. Patta, the Vice-Questore, is eager to dismiss the case as a death from natural causes, but Brunetti believes that there is more to it.

It soon transpires that there are some faint bruises around her neck and shoulders, indicating she may have been shaken. Could this have caused a heart attack? Was someone threatening her?

Meanwhile, Brunetti meets Signora Altavilla’s son, Niccolini, who tells him that since her retirement she had been helping out at a nearby nursing home. Brunetti visits the home with Ispettore Vianello to try and find any information that might be connected to the case. While they speak to those she spent the most time with, it appears that there is some hostility between the residents, which raises Brunetti’s suspicions. Once again, he enlists the help of Signorina Elettra, who discovers that Signora Altavilla was involved with an organisation that helped women at risk, providing them with a safe house. Could this have something to do with her death?

As the investigation takes an unexpected twist in events, Brunetti needs to find out the truth before it gets buried within a community that seems to be slipping deeper and deeper into deception and lies.

My take

I was a bit doubtful about listening to this audio version, first of all because I had already read the book some time ago, and secondly because this is an abridged version. I generally avoid abridged books because I am never sure about what is actually left out, I was attracted to the book because the narrator is Andrew Sachs (Manuel from Fawlty Towers)

There is always the danger too with an audio book that you can nod off while listening, and while he does an excellent job most of the time, Sachs' voice is a bit soporific at times. Other reviewers commented on how slowly the book moved.

I have read a large number of Donna Leon titles and I think in part my enjoyment must have come from the fact that I have considerable background about the main characters: Brunetti, his colleagues and his family. I enjoy the interaction between them and the finely drawn portraits that lead to great visualisation.

As usual with Leon novels the plot incorporates elements of life in modern Venice. So there is political and administrative corruption, problems of caring for an elderly population, social violence particularly towards women. Behind it all Leon's slightly quirky sense of humour shows itself.

Recommended.

My rating: 4.5
 

I've read and reviewed:
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
4.7, BY ITS COVER
4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE
4.8, THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH
4.5, FALLING IN LOVE
4.8, EARTHLY REMAINS

Review: EARTHLY REMAINS, Donna Leon

• published by Penguin Random House UK 2017
• ISBN 978-1-78-515137-8
• 308 pages
• #26 in the Guido Brunetti series

Synopsis

During the interrogation of an entitled, arrogant man suspected of giving drugs to a young girl who then died, Commissario Guido Brunetti acts rashly, doing something he will quickly come to regret. In the aftermath, he begins to doubt his career choices and realises that he needs a break from the stifling problems of his work.

Granted leave from the Questura, Brunetti is shipped off by his wife, Paola, to a villa owned by a wealthy relative on Sant'Erasmo, one of the largest islands in the Venetian laguna. There, he intends to pass his days rowing, and his nights reading Pliny's Natural History.

The recuperative stay goes according to plan and Brunetti is finally able to relax, until Davide Casati, the caretaker of the house, goes missing following a sudden storm. Nobody can find him - not his daughter, not his friends, and not the woman he'd been secretly visiting. Now, Brunetti feels compelled to investigate, to set aside his holiday and discover what happened to the man who had recently become his friend.

In Earthly Remains, Donna Leon shows Venice through an insider's eyes.From family meals and vaporetti rides to the never-ending influx of tourists and suffocating political corruption, the details and rhythms of everyday Venetian life are at the core of this thrilling novel, and of the terrible crime at its heart.

My Take

Underlying the crimes committed in this novel, is an in-depth look at the problems plaguing modern day Venice. Davide Casati is haunted by the role he has played in compromising the ecology of Venice, in causing the death of his bees, and perhaps even the death of his wife.

Out rowing with Casati every day while he is taking recuperative leave Guido Brunetti becomes aware of the Casati's troubled mind, and when Casati is found drowned he decides to find out what happened in his past.

Once again Donna Leon takes an issue that is troubling modern Venice,embeds some crime fiction in it, and then makes us think about the bigger picture, issues that make even have global implications.

An excellent read.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
4.7, BY ITS COVER
4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE
4.8, THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH
4.5, FALLING IN LOVE

Review: FALLING IN LOVE, Donna Leon

• source: my local library
• published 2015
• #24 in the Guido Brunetti series
• ISBN 978-0-8021-2353-4
• 264 pages
• this edition published by Atlantic Monthly Press

Synopsis  (Fantastic Fiction)

In Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon's first novel in the Commissario Brunetti series, readers were introduced to the glamorous and cut-throat world of opera and to one of Italy's finest living sopranos, Flavia Petrelli - then a suspect in the poisoning of a renowned German conductor.

Now, many years after Brunetti cleared her name, Flavia has returned to the illustrious La Fenice to sing the lead in Tosca. As an opera superstar, Flavia is well acquainted with attention from adoring fans and aspiring singers. But when one anonymous admirer inundates her with bouquets of yellow roses - on stage, in her dressing room and even inside her locked apartment - it becomes clear that this fan has become a potentially dangerous stalker. Distraught, Flavia turns to an old friend for help.

Familiar with Flavia's melodramatic temperament, Commissario Brunetti is at first unperturbed by her story, but when another young opera singer is attacked he begins to think Flavia's fears may be justified. In order to keep his friend out of danger, Brunetti must enter the psyche of an obsessive fan and find the culprit before anyone comes to harm.

My Take

Although he does use some police resources,  at first this is almost a private case for Brunetti. Not until a young singer whom Flavia Petrelli has praised is pushed down some steps does he really take it seriously. And then a mutual friend whose house Flavia is staying in is stabbed.

Once again the title is intriguing, almost misleading.

And then the reader might question the morality of the "justice" meted out in the end.

Signora Elettra goes on strike over what she sees as the unfair dismissal of one of her colleagues, and there is also some discussion of how Venice has changed particularly under the influence of tourism.

Another good read.

My Rating: 4.5

I've also read
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
4.7, BY ITS COVER
4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE
4.8, THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH

Review: THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH, Donna Leon

• this edition published 2016
  
• ISBN 978-0-8021-2480-7
• 292 pages
• #25 in the Brunetti series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

In The Waters of Eternal Youth, the twenty-fifth instalment in the bestselling Brunetti series, our Commissario finds himself drawn into a case that may not be a crime at all. Brunetti is investigating a cold case by request of the grand Contessa Lando-Continui, a friend of Brunetti's mother-in-law.

Fifteen years ago the Contessa's teenage granddaughter, Manuela, was found drowning in a canal. She was rescued from the canal at the last moment, but in many ways it was too late; she suffered severe brain damage and her life was never the same again.

Once a passionate horse rider, Manuela, now aged thirty, cannot remember the accident, or her beloved horse, and lives trapped in an eternal youth. The Contessa, unconvinced that this was an accident, implores Brunetti to find the culprit she believes was responsible for ruining Manuela's life. Out of a mixture of curiosity, pity and a willingness to fulfil the wishes of a loving grandmother, Brunetti reopens the case. But once he starts to investigate, Brunetti finds a murky past and a dark story at its heart.

The Waters of Eternal Youth is awash in the rhythms and concerns of contemporary Venetian life, from historical preservation, to housing, to new waves of African migrants, all circling the haunting story of a woman trapped in a perpetual childhood.

My Take

Donna Leon is another one of those authors who will always have a place on my reading lists. Sadly I don't always manage to keep up with her virtually annual publications.

At first glance THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH appears to be a departure from usual Brunetti cases, in that the initial case that Brunetti investigates is a cold case. He does it as a favour to a friend of his mother-in-law who wants to be reassured that she has done all that she can to find out what happened to her granddaughter who was nearly drowned 15 years earlier.

The title has ironic overtones but I'll leave you to work that out for yourself. Brunetti's investigation gets official sanction when he slyly suggests to Vice-Questore Patta that some social doors will open for his wife as a result.

However Brunetti sets a ball rolling when he contacts the man who rescued Manuela from the canal 15 years earlier. Brunetti also discovers that there were elements in the original medical report that should have sparked further investigation. There is a murder with just enough DNA evidence  to identify the murderer if the police could establish a match, but there is no-one on their records. Identification of the culprit comes from a chance meeting, but there were a couple of coincidences that the author let slip which enabled me to identify the murderer one step ahead of Brunetti.

And in the background? Some references to Venice's current problems. A satisfying read.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
4.7, BY ITS COVER
4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE

Review: THE GOLDEN EGG, Donna Leon

• published 2013 Atlantic Monthly Press
  
• ISBN 978-0-8021-2101-1
• 276 pages
• #22  in the Brunetti series

Synopsis (Amazon)

In The Golden Egg, as the first leaves of autumn begin to fall, Vice Questore Patta asks Brunetti to look into a minor shop-keeping violation committed by the mayor’s future daughter-in-law. Brunetti has no interest in helping his boss amass political favors, but he has little choice but to comply. Then Brunetti’s wife, Paola, comes to him with a request of her own. The mentally handicapped man who worked at their dry cleaner has just died of a sleeping pill overdose, and Paola loathes the idea that he lived and died without anyone noticing him, or helping him.

Brunetti begins to investigate the death and is surprised when he finds nothing on the man: no birth certificate, no passport, no driver’s license, no credit cards. As far as the Italian government is concerned, he never existed. Stranger still, the dead man’s mother refuses to speak to the police, and assures Brunetti that her son’s identification papers were stolen in a burglary. As secrets unravel, Brunetti suspects that the Lembos, an aristocratic family, might be somehow connected to the death. But why would anyone want this sweet, simple-minded man dead?

My Take

I've followed the novels of Donna Leon closely over the last two decades, but I don't think any of them have ever left me with such a feeling of sadness that THE GOLDEN EGG has.

Set in Venice, the novels have come to explore the issues of living in modern day Venice against the background of a crime, often a murder. Some of those issues get passing mention in this novel such as corruption amongst city officials and the effects of cheap imports on the Venetian economy.

At the beginning of this novel we are not sure whether a murder has taken place.What concerns Brunetti is that there are no state records of this man despite his estimated age of over forty years. He is identified by a name on a piece of paper in his pocket, in conjunction with the record of where the ambulance was called to collect his body.

You'll have to ask yourself at the end of reading this novel whether a crime has been committed. What has happened certainly leaves Brunetti feeling that there should be some way of wreaking retribution.

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
4.7, BY ITS COVER

Guido Brunetti (according to Fantastic Fiction)
1. Death At La Fenice (1992)
2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
3. The Anonymous Venetian (1994)
     aka Dressed for Death
4. A Venetian Reckoning (1995)
     aka Death And Judgment
5. Acqua Alta (1996)
     aka Death in High Water
6. The Death of Faith (1997)
     aka Quietly in Their Sleep
7. A Noble Radiance (1997)
8. Fatal Remedies (1998)
9. Friends in High Places (1999)
10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)
12. Uniform Justice (2003)
13. Doctored Evidence (2004)
14. Blood from a Stone (2005)
15. Through a Glass Darkly (2006)
16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)
17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)
18. About Face (2009)
19. A Question of Belief (2010)
20. Drawing Conclusions (2011)
21. Beastly Things (2012)
22. The Golden Egg (2013)
23. By Its Cover (2014)
24. Falling in Love (2015)
25. The Waters of Eternal Youth (2016)

Review: BY ITS COVER, Donna Leon

• first published by William Heinnemann 2014
• ISBN 978-0-434-02303-5
• 237 pages
• #23 in the Guido Brunetti series
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

In the pages of Donna Leon's internationally bestselling Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries, the conversations of the Brunetti family have often turned to topics of art and literature, but books are at the heart of this novel in a way they never have been before.

One afternoon, Brunetti gets a frantic call from the director of a prestigious Venetian library. Someone has stolen pages out of several rare books. After a round of questioning, the case seems clear: the culprit must be the man who requested the volumes, a visiting American professor. But the man fled the library earlier that day, and after checking his credentials, it becomes clear that he is not who he said he was.

As the investigation proceeds, the suspects multiply. And when a seemingly harmless character turns up brutally murdered, Brunetti must question his expectations about what makes a man innocent, or guilty.

My Take

One of the things I enjoy about the Guido Brunetti novels is the way that they introduce issues that are of concern to the citizens of Venice as well as the focus on the crime being investigated.

Only a few pages into BY ITS COVER Brunetti is in a police boat on its way to a library where a theft has been discovered. Turning into the Grand Canal, there ahead of them is a huge cruise ship, perhaps eleven storeys high, with a wash that is causing waves to sweep over the landings and footpaths. This was an issue that hit the headlines in 2014 when cruise ships were first banned, and then when the ban was overturned by Venetian authorities because of the effects it would have on tourism.

Other issues raised: Brunetti's father in law is investing his considerable wealth in companies outside Italy; it seems that the theft of the pages from rare books is only the tip of the iceberg, and that the case that Brunetti is investigating is one of a systematic looting of Venetian treasures; Brunetti questions what is most valuable in these books - their text or the pictures that illustrate them - and why people collect them anyway.

This was an excellent read, certainly one of Donna Leon's best.

My rating: 4.7

I have also reviewed
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY

Series

Guido Brunetti
1. Death At La Fenice (1992)
2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
3. The Anonymous Venetian (1994)      aka Dressed for Death
4. A Venetian Reckoning (1995)      aka Death And Judgment
5. Acqua Alta (1996)      aka Death in High Water
6. The Death of Faith (1997)      aka Quietly in Their Sleep
7. A Noble Radiance (1997)
8. Fatal Remedies (1998)
9. Friends in High Places (1999)
10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)
12. Uniform Justice (2003)
13. Doctored Evidence (2004)
14. Blood from a Stone (2005)
15. Through a Glass Darkly (2006)
16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)
17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)
18. About Face (2009)
19. A Question of Belief (2010)
20. Drawing Conclusions (2011)
21. Beastly Things (2012)
22. The Golden Egg (2013)
23. By Its Cover (2014)
24. Falling in Love (2015)

Review: DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY, Donna Leon

• # 2/23 in the Guido Brunetti series
  
• first published in 1993, republished in 2004 and 2009
• ISBN 978-0-0995-3659-8
• 373 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

The second novel to feature Guido Brunetti, Commissario of the Venice Police. Brunetti confronts the grisly sight of the body of an American soldier in a canal. He becomes suspicious and discovers toxic waste-dumping and a high-level cover-up that extends from the Mafia to the US Army.

My Take

I was delighted to find a Brunetti novel that I hadn't read. Very early in this long standing series, the author is just establishing the characters of Guido Brunetti and his wife Paola. Their children are in their early teens. Vice-Questore Patta tries in vain to mould Brunetti, and Signora Elektra, Patta's computer literate assistant is yet to come on the scene. For those who have visited Venice there are evocative descriptions.

Already too there are signs of Donna Leon's intense interest in corruption in high places, and the roles that both Italy and America are playing in global waste and pollution.

Not to be missed. If you haven't yet read any Donna Leon, this is a series you shouldn't miss - one certainly worth reading in order.

My rating: 4.6


I've also reviewed
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

Guido Brunetti
1. Death At La Fenice (1992)
2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
3. The Anonymous Venetian (1994)
     aka Dressed for Death
4. A Venetian Reckoning (1995)
     aka Death And Judgment
5. Acqua Alta (1996)
     aka Death in High Water
6. The Death of Faith (1997)
     aka Quietly in Their Sleep
7. A Noble Radiance (1997)
8. Fatal Remedies (1998)
9. Friends in High Places (1999)
10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)
12. Uniform Justice (2003)
13. Doctored Evidence (2004)
14. Blood from a Stone (2005)
15. Through a Glass Darkly (2006)
16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)
17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)
18. About Face (2009)
19. A Question of Belief (2010)
20. Drawing Conclusions (2011)
21. Beastly Things (2012)
22. The Golden Egg (2013)
23. By Its Cover (2014)

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

 Already reviewed
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE

Review: THE JEWELS OF PARADISE, Donna Leon

• published Grove Atlantic 2012
• Format: Kindle e-book
• File Size: 399 KB
• Print Length: 292 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0434022284
• Publisher: Cornerstone Digital (October 4, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B009IJZD9C
• source:  review copy supplied by publisher through NetGalley.com

Synopsis (NetGalley)

Donna Leon has won heaps of critical praise and legions of fans for her best-selling mystery series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, one of contemporary crime fiction’s most beloved characters. Over twenty-one books this sharp, kind-hearted native Venetian {??] has exposed read­ers to contemporary Venice in all its aspects: its arts and architecture, food and family life, but also its crime and insidious corruption. With The Jewels of Paradise, Leon takes readers beyond the world of the Venetian Questura in her first stand-alone novel.

Caterina Pellegrini is a native Venetian, and like so many of them, she’s had to leave home to pursue her career elsewhere, mostly abroad. With a doctorate in baroque opera from Vienna, she lands in Birmingham, England, as a research fellow and assistant professor. Birmingham, however, is no Venice, so when she gets word of a position back home, Caterina jumps at the opportunity.

The job is an unusual one. After nearly three centuries, two locked trunks, believed to contain the papers of a once-famous, now largely forgotten baroque composer, have been discovered. The composer was deeply connected in religious and political circles, but he died childless, and now two Venetian men, descendants of his cousins, each claim inheritance. With rumors of a treasure, they aren’t about to share the possible fortune. Caterina has been hired to attend the opening of the trunks and examine any enclosed papers to discover the “testamentary disposition” of the composer. But when her research takes her in unexpected directions and a silent man follows her through the streets, she begins to wonder just what secrets these trunks may hold. From a masterful writer, The Jewels of Paradise is a superb novel, a grip­ping tale of intrigue, music, history, and greed.

My Take

While there will be some who love this book, I'm afraid I am not one of them. I think I love the Guido Brunetti series (see my reviews below) too much.

THE JEWELS OF PARADISE felt a bit bloated to me. I couldn't fault the research and accepted that the author had a few things she needed to get off her chest, but there were times when I felt myself losing interest.

Part of (my) trouble is probably that it barely falls into the crime fiction category. Sure there is a possible murder that took place some 400 years ago when a prominent man simply disappeared, and then in the current setting there is some fraud and deception happening. But the author felt too compelled to give me the benefit of her research and I also got impatient with Caterina humming over baroque music in her head.

I found the final denouement barely satisfactory. I could understand why the "cousins" were interested in the possible treasure but couldn't get a handle on what the lawyer was trying to do. Although there is some irony at the end that made me chuckle. It tied in well with the discussion in the story about people seeing things differently because they are viewing them from different perspectives.

My rating: 3.9

I've also reviewed
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP

Review: QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP, Donna Leon

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1706 KB
• Print Length: 318 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0143115936
• Publisher: Grove Press; Reprint edition (May 29, 2007).
  First published 1997.  aka THE DEATH OF FAITH
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0028QGQ9I
• Source: I bought it

Synopsis (Amazon)

Donna Leon's mastery of plot, her understanding of Venetian manners and mores, and above all her philosophical, unfailingly decent protagonist have made the Commissario Brunetti mysteries bestsellers around the world, including an ever-growing American audience.

In The Death of Faith [QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP], Brunetti comes to the aid of a young nursing sister who is leaving her convent following the unexpected death of five patients. At first Brunetti's inquiries reveal nothing amiss, and he wonders whether the nun is simply creating a smoke screen to justify abandoning her vocation. But perhaps she has stumbled onto something very real and very sinister - something that puts her life in imminent danger.

My take

This novel comes relatively early (#6) in the Brunetti series series in Venice. Brunetti's two children, Raffi and Chiara, are still at school, and Chiara's experiences with her religious education teacher allows the introduction of secondary plot. The secondary plot also allows the author to explore the lengths to which Brunetti's wife Paola will go to protect her children.

The young nun comes to Commissario Brunetti at a time when his boss Vice-Questore Patta is away on what is rumoured to be a second honeymoon. On the surface Brunetti's initial investigation seems to say that no crimes have been committed. Some of the elderly at the nursing home have chosen to leave a bequest to the church and their subsequent deaths seem entirely due to natural causes. But then comes the murder of one of the recipients and the young nun is knocked off her bike. Brunetti doesn't like the coincidences. In the background is a powerful group protecting the church and their network reacts quickly and violently.

I have read most of the Brunetti series but here was one that I hadn't. I really enjoyed it.

My rating: 4.4

Other reviews of books in the series on MiP
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS