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A review by bookstoloveandhate
Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
4.0
Death at La Fenice is the first book in the Commissario Brunetti series. I grabbed it on sale some time back and it disappeared into my TBR pile, emerging when some of the other books in the series went on sale. (The 32nd book in the series is being released March 14, 2023, hence the sale prices on earlier books.) Having now acquired 24 of the 32 books, I decided I should, oh, perhaps read one.
It was worth the read. The pacing is somewhat languid, but the book itself doesn't feel slow. We start off with a bang, the death of the title happening almost immediately. A peformance of La Traviata at La Fenice Opera House is interrupted by the death of the evening’s conductor, a world-renowed figure notoriously difficult and widely disliked. The problem for Guido Brunetti? While there is no shortage of people who might have had reasons to rid themselves of the man, there is nothing to link any of them to the crime. At least not on the surface. In order to solve the crime (which he is under immense political pressure to do), he must dig, and in doing so, may uncover some things better left buried.
There is a wonderful feel to the book, a Venice very different from the tourist images. Part of that is probably because Donna Leon makes her home in the city. There’s crumbling buildings, illegal apartments, and complaints about the slowness of beaucracy. Brunetti frequents some restaurants as a matter of course, and others only when he can put it on his expense account. Throughout this, the layers of the mystery are peeled back one by one, answers sometimes leading to more questions, more layers. The beauty of the journey here lies in those questions, pulling you through blind alleys and out again, with the consequences being not just the death itself, but the fallout among those who were touched by this man’s actions. And, yeah, I’m trying real not to use spoilers, but about halfway through, I began to suspect whom Brunetti would need to confront at the climax. I did not, however, guess what was behind the actions or the final twist. Think back over the story, though, the clues were there.
Definitely need to pull Book 2 out of the TBR pile. This may end up being my big series read of 2023.
It was worth the read. The pacing is somewhat languid, but the book itself doesn't feel slow. We start off with a bang, the death of the title happening almost immediately. A peformance of La Traviata at La Fenice Opera House is interrupted by the death of the evening’s conductor, a world-renowed figure notoriously difficult and widely disliked. The problem for Guido Brunetti? While there is no shortage of people who might have had reasons to rid themselves of the man, there is nothing to link any of them to the crime. At least not on the surface. In order to solve the crime (which he is under immense political pressure to do), he must dig, and in doing so, may uncover some things better left buried.
There is a wonderful feel to the book, a Venice very different from the tourist images. Part of that is probably because Donna Leon makes her home in the city. There’s crumbling buildings, illegal apartments, and complaints about the slowness of beaucracy. Brunetti frequents some restaurants as a matter of course, and others only when he can put it on his expense account. Throughout this, the layers of the mystery are peeled back one by one, answers sometimes leading to more questions, more layers. The beauty of the journey here lies in those questions, pulling you through blind alleys and out again, with the consequences being not just the death itself, but the fallout among those who were touched by this man’s actions. And, yeah, I’m trying real not to use spoilers, but about halfway through, I began to suspect whom Brunetti would need to confront at the climax. I did not, however, guess what was behind the actions or the final twist. Think back over the story, though, the clues were there.
Definitely need to pull Book 2 out of the TBR pile. This may end up being my big series read of 2023.