- 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
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