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A review by usbsticky
Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon
4.0
On my 11th or 12th Donna Leon book I can say that there are a few constants in all of her books: description of some sort of corruption in Italy, some very well written passages and superb observations, unknown words that I have to look up in the dictionary, delicious Italian meals and side plots that are unfinished.
Each book usually starts with the discovery of the crime or the crime, then Brunetti shows up. This book is a little different in that it doesn't go into Brunett's POV after the crime, instead it's a witness. And the first policeman the book describes is Lt. Scarpa. This is the first long description that we've had of Scarpa and it confirms all the nastiness of the character we've come to expect based on the previous books. It shows Scarpa as uncaring and unfriendly. It's not until a bit later we get to Brunetti.
Spoilers ahead (I will tell you everything):
An unsavory elderly widow is bashed in the head violently with a statue. Her illegal Romanian live in helper is found on an outbound train near the border with what appears to be stolen money. At the last moment she escapes from a policeman and runs across the tracks only to be killed by an oncoming train. Case appears to be solved.
A few weeks later the widow's neighbor shows up at the Questura claiming that she was with the helper that morning and saw the widow alive so she could not be the killer. The investigation is unofficially opened.
Brunetti starts by searching through everything associated with the widow including her son who had passed away 5 years ago, her lawyer and her niece/heir. Eventually he finds suspicious small payments into the widow's bank accounts which are whisked away to an offshore account the moment the widow dies. The source of the payments is the concern.
Brunetti decides to search the widow's old accumulated bank records again. By luck he breaks an old statue. Inside the statue is a small document which shows the son's boss lied about having a doctorate. The son used this document to blackmail his boss who ultimately decided to kill the widow who got too greedy and demanded a 5x increase in payment.
Overall this was a pretty neat mystery with an easy mode solution (Brunetti could have found the document at stage of the book accidentally). The book ends abruptly with no follow up to what happened to the niece or lawyer. The corruption here is partly about that there isn't much graft in the education department so dead-enders are promoted there or put there until something more lucrative in the civil service shows up.
Each book usually starts with the discovery of the crime or the crime, then Brunetti shows up. This book is a little different in that it doesn't go into Brunett's POV after the crime, instead it's a witness. And the first policeman the book describes is Lt. Scarpa. This is the first long description that we've had of Scarpa and it confirms all the nastiness of the character we've come to expect based on the previous books. It shows Scarpa as uncaring and unfriendly. It's not until a bit later we get to Brunetti.
Spoilers ahead (I will tell you everything):
An unsavory elderly widow is bashed in the head violently with a statue. Her illegal Romanian live in helper is found on an outbound train near the border with what appears to be stolen money. At the last moment she escapes from a policeman and runs across the tracks only to be killed by an oncoming train. Case appears to be solved.
A few weeks later the widow's neighbor shows up at the Questura claiming that she was with the helper that morning and saw the widow alive so she could not be the killer. The investigation is unofficially opened.
Brunetti starts by searching through everything associated with the widow including her son who had passed away 5 years ago, her lawyer and her niece/heir. Eventually he finds suspicious small payments into the widow's bank accounts which are whisked away to an offshore account the moment the widow dies. The source of the payments is the concern.
Brunetti decides to search the widow's old accumulated bank records again. By luck he breaks an old statue. Inside the statue is a small document which shows the son's boss lied about having a doctorate. The son used this document to blackmail his boss who ultimately decided to kill the widow who got too greedy and demanded a 5x increase in payment.
Overall this was a pretty neat mystery with an easy mode solution (Brunetti could have found the document at stage of the book accidentally). The book ends abruptly with no follow up to what happened to the niece or lawyer. The corruption here is partly about that there isn't much graft in the education department so dead-enders are promoted there or put there until something more lucrative in the civil service shows up.