- 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
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