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pennyriley's review against another edition
4.0
Another enjoyable entry in the Brunetti series. There’s a bit less family in this one and Brunetti has more to do with Scarpa, who has seemingly closed a case on very little evidence. As Brunetti works his way to the truth he clashes with Scarpa on more than one occasion. Elettra plays her usual role as hacker to the stars (detectives). I realise that her role is ironic in that she uses the same kinds of tactics as the criminals do, and Leon is pointing out the absurdity of the ‘justice’ system, but I do feel that it’s a weakness of the series that Brunetti would not be able to function without her.
writerlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
More like a domestic type of mystery for this mellow yet oppressive plot. Leon succeeded in taking a prosaic, down to earth, petty motive and transforming it into a commentary on the human psyche. Not bad for a mystery series novel. So it's the height of summer and when Brunetti comes back from vacationing with his family, he finds a case that Scarpa has almost closed but ends up being a bone of contention between them. Scarpa, the villain of the series is more present in this novel than just being the dark cloud over Brunetti. Vianello is becoming Signorina Electra's apprentice in hacking database. This story is so good because it's banal, prosaic and so very human. To quote Stephan Eicher : "L'homme est un animal." So very true, down to its petty, petty crimes.
jim_simpson60's review
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
northstar's review
2.0
I love this series and probably would give most of the others a 3 or 4, but this one just didn't connect with me. Leon is fairly cynical and in this case, I felt the cynicism got in the way of the story, and I found the solution pedestrian and sort of random. A fun escape but Leon has lots of better books.