You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
Another eminently readable and engaging book in the series. I like the way Brunetti’s non-work life and thoughts are explored in this episode. And dammit, I want a Trammezzino.
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
This book of the series is full of emotions. It starts with Paola being so mad, that she throws in the window of a travel agency - twice.
Everything else unravels rather quickly. The owner of the travel agency ends up dead and Paola is distraught thinking, that she set the chain of events in motion. But even more follows.
While I agree with Paolas reasons to do what she did, I don't agree with her meassures. Violence or vandalism is never the sollution.
||The medicine trade that's uncovered at the end makes me even more mad. I'm happy that justice is served.||
Everything else unravels rather quickly. The owner of the travel agency ends up dead and Paola is distraught thinking, that she set the chain of events in motion. But even more follows.
While I agree with Paolas reasons to do what she did, I don't agree with her meassures. Violence or vandalism is never the sollution.
||The medicine trade that's uncovered at the end makes me even more mad. I'm happy that justice is served.||
I love mysteries, but I had to scale back from the Mary Higgins Clark-violence-against-women type books. The series takes place in Venice and the author, Donna Leon, gives us a peak into the red-tape and politics of this wonderful city.
The main character is police commisario Guido Brunetti. We get a peek into his police work and his home life throughout the books. Not all the mysteries are tied up in neat little packages at the end, but that's what makes this series so enjoyable.
The main character is police commisario Guido Brunetti. We get a peek into his police work and his home life throughout the books. Not all the mysteries are tied up in neat little packages at the end, but that's what makes this series so enjoyable.
tense
medium-paced
Entertaining as always, but I am uncomfortable with two features that persist in varying degrees: reliance on computer hacking and the father-in-law’s network of acquaintances to solve crimes.
In this book characters take actions that seem very extreme degrees of character traits revealed before.
Leon continues to amaze otherwise with how different her plots.
In this book characters take actions that seem very extreme degrees of character traits revealed before.
Leon continues to amaze otherwise with how different her plots.
Commissario Guido Brunetti is wakened from a sound sleep to be told about an act of vandalism... for which his wife, Paola, has been arrested. His principled wife had been infuriated at learning that travel agencies were promoting thinly disguised sex tours to remote vacation spots, where men could seek sex with minor-age children. So she threw a rock through the window of one of the travel agencies as an attempt to focus attention on the barely legal operations. The arresting officers politely do not report the incident, and an embarrassed Brunetti takes his wife home.
No sooner has the window been repaired than Paola repeats her protest, but this time she is booked by Landi, an acolyte of the Sicilian, Lt. Scarpa, Brunetti's in-house nemesis. This results in an uncomfortable meeting with the travel agency's owner, Dr. Mitri, and his surprisingly silent lawyer Avvocato Zambino, in Vice-Questore Patta's office. Mitri seems graciously willing to accept damages for the vandalism... but Brunetti finds himself refusing to speak for his wife. Patta is sufficiently incensed to put Brunetti on administrative leave and send him home.
Two days later, Mitri is murdered and a note is left at the scene referring to paedophiles and the people who help them. Did Paola's act lead to the man's death?
Brunetti and his team pursue various leads, while also trying to salvage a case in which a witness has been intimidated into altering his testimony. The specter of the Mafia lurks in the background. Could the murderer have some connection to the Mafia's expanding influence? What was the seemingly spotless Dr. Mitri involved in? As often happens in Donna Leon's tales, justice cannot be taken for granted. Only the Brunetti family holds firm at the center of these stories.
No sooner has the window been repaired than Paola repeats her protest, but this time she is booked by Landi, an acolyte of the Sicilian, Lt. Scarpa, Brunetti's in-house nemesis. This results in an uncomfortable meeting with the travel agency's owner, Dr. Mitri, and his surprisingly silent lawyer Avvocato Zambino, in Vice-Questore Patta's office. Mitri seems graciously willing to accept damages for the vandalism... but Brunetti finds himself refusing to speak for his wife. Patta is sufficiently incensed to put Brunetti on administrative leave and send him home.
Two days later, Mitri is murdered and a note is left at the scene referring to paedophiles and the people who help them. Did Paola's act lead to the man's death?
Brunetti and his team pursue various leads, while also trying to salvage a case in which a witness has been intimidated into altering his testimony. The specter of the Mafia lurks in the background. Could the murderer have some connection to the Mafia's expanding influence? What was the seemingly spotless Dr. Mitri involved in? As often happens in Donna Leon's tales, justice cannot be taken for granted. Only the Brunetti family holds firm at the center of these stories.
I really like these books. I like the characters. I like the location. I love the gentle and sometimes not so gentle insertion of feminist ideals. The one thing that consistently bothers me though is there is often a broad theme that drives the story but then never gets revisited to my satisfaction. In this book, for example, it is the issue of the sex tours, which drives Paola's actions in the opening pages. I really thought this was going to play more into the story or at least have some attention paid to it in the end.
At the top of the story, there is the threat of sex tours and that threat reaches our Guido Brunetti via familial lines. Of course, it expands across Venice and other parts of Italy. There are reminders of the beauty of the area, but the author doesn’t dwell on them. (Imagine living in an area where lovely, ancient sites are so commonplace as to be not noticed...) Pretty straightforward detective story otherwise.