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A review by usbsticky
A Sea of Troubles by Donna Leon
5.0
Probably the best of the Brunetti series I've read so far.
Spoilers below:
Donna Leon touches upon the ills of modern Italy in each of her books. In this one it's pollution of the water around Venice (the Laguna) and what it's doing to the fishery industry. And despite everyone knowing about it they still eat the food. Pollution of all sorts is actually an ongoing theme. The other issue, which is another on going theme, is corruption. There are several examples of it but one of them was one of the fisherman only declaring about 10% of his income for taxes. He is only found because he was reported to the tax office by someone.
Summary:
Two fishermen are killed on the island of Pellestrina. Everyone in the village bands together and tells the police nothing. Brunetti is forced to put Elettra (his secretary) and Pucetti (a young cop) undercover on the island. While they are investigating, a store owner is also drowned by the killer.
While on the island Elettra meets and falls for a young man (Carlo), a native of the island who has returned from university to be a fisherman with his uncle Vittorio. Feeling protective and maybe jealous, Brunetti begins to dig up Carlo's background. But Carlo is not who says he is. It turns out that he used to work for the tax office but he used his position to try and shield his uncle (another one, not the fisherman) from an audit and was fired. Once all the relationships are revealed, we figure out who the killer is.
I like this book the best so far because of the ending. The book ends on a storm when Brunetti and his assistants go back to Pellestrina to hunt for Carlo. This part is very well written and suspenseful as the the storm hits just as everything comes to a head. The downside of this book is that there are a lot of loose ends but this is a normal peculiarity of the Donna Leon's books.
On to the next book!
Spoilers below:
Donna Leon touches upon the ills of modern Italy in each of her books. In this one it's pollution of the water around Venice (the Laguna) and what it's doing to the fishery industry. And despite everyone knowing about it they still eat the food. Pollution of all sorts is actually an ongoing theme. The other issue, which is another on going theme, is corruption. There are several examples of it but one of them was one of the fisherman only declaring about 10% of his income for taxes. He is only found because he was reported to the tax office by someone.
Summary:
Two fishermen are killed on the island of Pellestrina. Everyone in the village bands together and tells the police nothing. Brunetti is forced to put Elettra (his secretary) and Pucetti (a young cop) undercover on the island. While they are investigating, a store owner is also drowned by the killer.
While on the island Elettra meets and falls for a young man (Carlo), a native of the island who has returned from university to be a fisherman with his uncle Vittorio. Feeling protective and maybe jealous, Brunetti begins to dig up Carlo's background. But Carlo is not who says he is. It turns out that he used to work for the tax office but he used his position to try and shield his uncle (another one, not the fisherman) from an audit and was fired. Once all the relationships are revealed, we figure out who the killer is.
I like this book the best so far because of the ending. The book ends on a storm when Brunetti and his assistants go back to Pellestrina to hunt for Carlo. This part is very well written and suspenseful as the the storm hits just as everything comes to a head. The downside of this book is that there are a lot of loose ends but this is a normal peculiarity of the Donna Leon's books.
On to the next book!