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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
This mystery was set in Venice and featured detective Guido Brunetti. Brunetti is assigned to investigate when a world-famous conductor is found dead in his dressing room, and poison is found in his coffee. Brunetti goes on to investigate all the usual suspects: the younger wife, the producer, the various singers, an old lover. I liked the character of Brunetti and his wife. It's nice to see a detective in a crime fiction novel happily married. My favorite parts of the book involve Brunetti's discussions with his boss, who is portrayed as particularly dumb. The investigation itself made sense, but wasn't particularly fascinating. A lot of information was collected but not much was relevant to the case. The resolution to the mystery was okay, but I couldn't help but feel the author was being a bit sensational. Certainly a famous man with such habits would have encountered scandal long before he'd reached his advanced age? Or even some gossip? Overall this was a good, satisfying book and I understand why people would enjoy the series. But I don't believe I'll be continuing with this series.
Come for the Venetian setting, stay for the writing.
I loved this book. There was a real sense of the setting and culture imbued in the story, and the understated humor had me laughing aloud quite a lot. The characters, both main and side, were a joy to spend time with, which is good because we spent a fair amount of time talking to them.
The mystery too was innovative - I did manage to guess a good chunk of what was going on, but that's down more to my paranoid brain than any failure of the plot. I just wish a little more space had been spent on the victim - the red herrings wandered rather far.
I loved this book. There was a real sense of the setting and culture imbued in the story, and the understated humor had me laughing aloud quite a lot. The characters, both main and side, were a joy to spend time with, which is good because we spent a fair amount of time talking to them.
The mystery too was innovative - I did manage to guess a good chunk of what was going on, but that's down more to my paranoid brain than any failure of the plot. I just wish a little more space had been spent on the victim - the red herrings wandered rather far.
I love the Brunetti novels. I have been trying to find this to listen to on Audio for ages and finally found a copy online and downloaded it.
Characters: Guido Brunetti, Paola Brunetti, the two children, Count and Countess Falier, the Maestro Wellauer, Vice-Questore Guiseppe Patta, the Opera Theatre, Operatic singer Flavia Petrelli, Brett Lynch, and others.
Donna Leon manages to evoke the mystique of Venice and its history so well and then add the crime to this. You can spend a lovely afternoon or evening losing yourself in Commissario Brunetti's Venice, join him as he walks home in the evening or wanders through the streets of Venice or on the Grande Canal as he sets out to solve this mystery.
If you have not read any of these novels begin at the beginning and delve into Venice mysteries with Brunetti and the people of Venice. Imagine yourself a true resident of Venice and join the locals.
Characters: Guido Brunetti, Paola Brunetti, the two children, Count and Countess Falier, the Maestro Wellauer, Vice-Questore Guiseppe Patta, the Opera Theatre, Operatic singer Flavia Petrelli, Brett Lynch, and others.
Donna Leon manages to evoke the mystique of Venice and its history so well and then add the crime to this. You can spend a lovely afternoon or evening losing yourself in Commissario Brunetti's Venice, join him as he walks home in the evening or wanders through the streets of Venice or on the Grande Canal as he sets out to solve this mystery.
If you have not read any of these novels begin at the beginning and delve into Venice mysteries with Brunetti and the people of Venice. Imagine yourself a true resident of Venice and join the locals.
Good crime mystery. I really didn't figure out the punchline until about 20 pages from the end. I look forward to reading the other books in this series.
Pleasant mystery set in atmospheric Venice. For once I didn't figure out the plot, so that is definitely a plus
I really like this mystery. I really like the main character, and I felt the supporting characters were well done too!
The setting of Venice is unique and gave the book a cool feel. It was a very moody book full of interesting characters.
As a plus, I never figured out who the murderer was or what their motivation was until the end. That seems like it should be commonplace, but in so many mysteries it can be sometimes very easy to figure out. Which is disappointing.
But not here! I found this to be a very engaging book overall.
The setting of Venice is unique and gave the book a cool feel. It was a very moody book full of interesting characters.
As a plus, I never figured out who the murderer was or what their motivation was until the end. That seems like it should be commonplace, but in so many mysteries it can be sometimes very easy to figure out. Which is disappointing.
But not here! I found this to be a very engaging book overall.
I have been on a bit of a “mysteries set in foreign lands” jag lately, and this is another that falls into that category. It takes place in Venice (Italy) and its protagonist is Commissario Guido Brunetti, an intrepid investigator in the Italian police. As with others I’ve read in this (sub)genre, it is as much about the culture of the setting as the details of the crime and the investigation. Here, the author (a well-traveled American) introduces many details about the manners of communication between Italians, the nuances of local politics and customs (city planners and officials are routinely bribed in order that home improvements might be approved; theatre goers are more interested in appearances than in the quality of performances) along with the threads of the central plot. As in most mysteries of this type, those threads are woven subtly into a fabric that gradually takes shape, and when Brunetti (inevitably) discovers the truth of the famous maestro’s death, the case is presented matter-of-factly, with a minimum of drama and the maximum of compassion and respect, as befits the dignity of the Venetian culture. I wouldn’t say this is the most gripping mystery I’ve ever read, but it was entertaining enough that I might visit Brunetti in Venice (which I did look up in order to give myself a better sense of the city’s unique geography) again sometime.
A rather engrossing mystery. Commissario Guido Brunetti is called in to investigate the death of a famous and genius conducter, Wellauer. He is found dead in his dressing room after the second act - a cup of coffee laced with cyanide spilled in the floor. He has been behaving oddly, distracted and according to several people, one of them having played a performance with him before, his old brilliance and fire are gone. The orchestra for the opera La Traviata is off - the music is not holding together and keeping in line with the singing. His soprano La Petrelli has had a fight with him and several others have had "disagreements". But Brunetti is convinced that the answer lies in the past. If he can only talk to the right people or dig far enough back. His wife, Paola, puts him in touch with some of tkhe right people - people who know things - people she went to school with. They direct him back to an old singer who refused to sing before Mussolini and never sang again. She holds the key though she doesn't want to talk to him about it. The truth begins to dawn when he talks to the doctor he finds in the Wellauer's appointment book and learns that he was suffering permanent hearing loss....which for a musician and conductor was terrible.