A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries (Hardcover))

Another hauntingly beautiful and poignant story of the human condition faced by Commissario Brunetti. Having spent a lot of time in Venice myself, including November - the setting of this book - Donna Leon's eloquent descriptions transport me back there to its delightful sights, smells, sounds and tastes. I love her stories and wait eagerly for the next one.

I particularly enjoyed this low-key, leisurely paced development of plot and eventual dénouement. Not hurried. As always, I especially enjoyed the repartie with Signorina Elettra. Very enjoyable, comfortable days through Leon's Venezia.

Brunette comes alive once again. The story is current, believable and we'll written. Leone droll sense of humor gives added depth to her detective, perhaps the most literate and interesting one in the mystery genre.

As usual for Donna Leon's books, I greatly enjoyed reading this story, which left me thinking about matters I would not otherwise have wondered about. Am already looking forward to reading the next one.

Boring. If you've read her last several books, you don't need to read this one. There's a sameness to them as she grinds out those rather short books which have lots of Ho hum side prose to give them length, I guess. 26 Brunetti books! Lots of royalties.

The 20th+ story from Donna Leon continues to engage at many levels. We have the Brunetti family (Guido,Paola and Co.) who at this point are old friends The characters are unique and each continues to grow taking us along. Leon can blend Guido’s thoughts and particular world view with an always interesting “case”. We also have the familiar cast of characters at the Questura de Venezia. And who doesn’t love Signorina Elettra. Finally, all this rich mix takes place in Venice. A city rich in our imagination that Guido knows intimately. Another 5 star outing.

Again Donna Leon makes the characters she created come alive and seem very human. This time the end of the story is not too hard to figure out but from the title you will know that Leon comes down on the side of "justice" but you very much understand why the title of the book is so apt. This is a very nice series and I look forward to more adventures in the future.

Guido Brunetti is a thoughtful, compassionate, and even-tempered man, who is well-read and curious about human behavior. Even he might admit that his job as Commissario di Polizia in Venice is not particularly taxing. Brunetti relies heavily on the expertise of the incomparable Signora Elletra Zorzi, who apparently can hack into any database at will. When Brunetti needs medical, employment, or financial records, many of which are confidential, the commissario asks Signorina Elletra for help, and she is more than happy to comply. In Donna Leon's "The Temptation of Forgiveness," Brunetti investigates an assault on Tullio Gasparini, who is married to a colleague of Guido's wife.

The author takes us on a tour of Venice's sights, including the city's fog-bound canals, picturesque cathedrals, and vaporettos or waterbuses. In addition, Leon describes in delectable detail the meals that Guido's wife, Paola, prepares for her husband and two children. On a more serious note, there is social commentary about corruption among government officials and the inducements that lead people to engage in illegal activities.

To Leon's credit "The Temptation of Forgiveness" reveals Brunetti's flaws as well as his strengths. No one would accuse him of being a workaholic. He takes time from his workday to enjoy a stroll, read the local newspaper, eat a leisurely lunch, or gaze out the window. He also makes an uncharacteristic error in judgment that leads him to misread the evidence and jump to an erroneous conclusion. By far, the most compelling scenes of the novel take place during its final pages, when Guido confronts a felon for whom he feels a measure of sympathy. This latest installment in Leon's long-running series is not particularly compelling or fast-paced, but it is worth reading for its varied cast of characters, wry humor, atmospheric descriptive writing, and insight into the decisions we make for good or ill.

Fans of this series will find the latest (27th! wow!) as rewarding as the previous novels. Those who have not read Leon before will also find themselves eagerly devouring not only this one but the previous novels as well. Commissario Guido Brunetti's Venice is not the Venice of the travel magazines. It's a real city, with all the problems one can possibly imagine. What Leon has done is create in Guido a classic often beleaguered new age (sort of) detective with a big lively cast of supporting characters, not least of which is his family. This time around he's looking into drugs, both illegal and pharmaceutical. How much more topical can it get? What really happened to Tulio Gasparini? What's up with the leaks from the Questura? How do the various threads of what might seem to be disparate stories come together. This is woven, as always, wonderfully. This time around I was especially engaged by Guido's colleague Claudia Griffoni. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. Highly recommend.

As some other readers have pointed out, this last book is not of the same quality as the others in this series. The story is repetitive, with very little action. I had to force myself to read to the end. The plot is wrapped up with pages of explanation, not with the gradual unraveling of a mystery. There are still some wonderful scenes of life of Venice and of Brunetti’s family and colleagues, but they are not enough to lighten a somewhat dark and depressing book.

Where there are government programs, there is always room for fraud. And Italy is no exception. Commissario Guido Brunetti discovers a clever scheme while investigating an apparent assault case involving the husband of a colleague of his wife, who had previously visited him because she suspected drugs were being sold in her son’s school.

One thing led to another. Brunetti found the drug dealer, who also was operating a clever scheme to distribute drugs to the kids. And when the aforementioned husband was found comatose at the foot of a bridge and taken to the hospital, Brunetti at first suspected the assault was the result of a confrontation with the drug dealer.

Donna Leon has written almost three dozen novels in this series, combining vivid descriptions of Venice, Brunetti’s appetite, and a wide variety of social ills. In this installment, she combines the taking advantage of elderly people and of government programs such as medicine and drug insurance, exposing both while Brunetti goes about in his calm manner conducting his investigation.

Recommended.

This one is unacceptable... there is no real captivating crime story here ! I read it and threw it in the recycling bin ! It is not even worth to give to friends or family members !

I have probably read 10 of Brunetti's novels in French and English all superbly written (and translated !).

This time I knew it: I should have saved my money and not buy this book because the 3 last ones were very weak and this one is the weakest !

The early ones had a crime mystery along the superb writing, the beautifull setting of Venice and the stories of Brunetti's family and colleagues. As the series progressed, Dona Leaon ran out of crime stories but kept the style. Unfortunatly, it is not enough any more !

After 27 stories, it is probably time to retired Guido Brunetti ?

CG (Montréal)

The previous two or three books, while an improvement over the several preceding ones, were far from her best. This one belongs with those earlier mediocrities. The story consists of three threads (school drugs, an attack, Signora Elettra) which don't really hang together. The ending, as in those earlier novels, is rushed and lacks the meditations that mark the best of the novels. I'm not sorry to have read it, but I hope for better in the future.

I eagerly await each new Brunetti book by Donna Leon and pre-order them as soon as they are available. This one was another good read featuring the characters I have come to know and love. I feel that the story meandered around a bit before the mystery was finally solved with Brunetti going off in the wrong direction while investigating the assault of a man who was pushed or thrown down a set of stairs sustaining a serious concussion but I enjoyed it nonetheless. As another reviewer stated, there was a lot of gray area here (no spoilers) giving Brunetti room for pause.

I look forward to the next book in the series with one of my favorite cities as the backdrop.

Same song, seventh verse. Once again Leon is complaining about the crowds in Venice, the tourists, how it isn't Venice any more. She has done this in other books; here she spends most of the first 30% of the book repeating this same song. And for $24.00!!

This author and her publisher could be arrested for fraud. This story, not a novel, is stretched beyond the breaking point. A conversation in an office spread over two chapters? Maybe three. Yikes, this is torture. Donna, please, stop!

First Sentence: Having left the apartment smack on time so as to arrive at the Questura on time for a meeting with his superior, Brunetti found himself seated toward the rear of a Number One vaporetto, glancing idly through a copy of that morning’s Gazzettino.

Commissario Guido Brunetti is approached by a co-worker of his wife asking his help in stopping the people she thinks may be selling drugs to her son. Unfortunately, there is really nothing he can do. When her husband, Tullio Gasparini, is found at the foot of a bridge with a severe head injury, it opens the way to a possible connection. But nothing is simple. It takes the help of his colleague Commissario, Claudia Griffoni, his boss’s secretary, the remarkable Signorina Elettra, and the reading of Sophocles’ Antigone, to reach a solution.

A map! All gratitude goes to publishers who include a map. It not only orients the reader but helps one feel part of the story.

It takes no time at all to be reminded why Leon is such a popular and successful author. No prologue here. Instead, one is sitting next to Brunetti in what quickly goes from a normal commute to one filled with tension. But there is still that touch of the familiar with which we can all identify—“Brunetti turned and looked at the man sitting on his right, but saw that he was so rapt by whatever showed on the screen of his phone that he would not have noticed seraphs had they descended and flown in close formation on either side of the boat.”

Leon’s introduction of Brunetti’s boss is familiar to most who have worked in the corporate world—“He seemed busier than he was; he never missed the opportunity to claim for himself any praise given to the organization for which he worked; he had a black belt in shifting blame or responsibility for failure to shoulders other than his own.” While it is his bosses’ secretary, Signorina Elletra Zorzi one can’t help but truly admire, it is Brunetti himself who makes loyal fans of her readers—"Why are you always so kind to him, Signore?’ Signorina Elettra asked. Brunetti had to consider this: He had never given conscious thought to how to respond to Alvise. ‘Because he needs it,’ he said.”

Leon’s metaphors are to be savoured, and Brunetti’s definition of the law makes one think—'“It’s not important what either of us thinks about the law.’ ‘Then what is important?’ ‘That innocent people be protected. That’s what laws are meant to do,” he said.”’ Every word is a gift.

It is nice, though sad, to learn more about Brunetti’s background. It also clarifies the way by which he reached one of his views. The scenes of Brunetti, especially those with his family, are so relatable and real. He is a cultured man who comfortably uses words such as “metonym,” and reads Antigone. How refreshing is his attitude toward guns, and how radical a cultural difference. Being in Italy, there is always food such as a simple lunch of celery root soup and veal meatballs wrapped in speck [a dense, ruddy ham].

Inspector Claudia Griffoni is a wonderful addition and, in some ways, foil to Brunetti. As opposed to his wife Paoli, Griffoni shares his world but sees it from a woman’s perspective—“…men explaining their violence towards women and expecting people to believe they really didn’t have a choice. …And, if I might add, only men are stupid enough to believe it because they feel the same desire to control women…”

Leon’s descriptions are exacting, taking one beyond a sense of place, to a sense of being there. She provides small life lessons, her humor subtle and unforced. It is not easy to convey emotion, to truly make one feel that which is felt by the characters, yet Leon has the ability to do just that without going over the top.

The differences between Italian and US law is remarkable and eye-opening. In some ways, it is difficult to say which is better. Leon makes you think, feel, and question.

“The Temptation of Forgiveness is a mystery, yes. But more so, it is about relationships, desperation, and greed. There are no winners here.

THE TEMPTATAION OF FORGIVENESS (Pol Proc-Comm. Guido Brunetti-Venice, Italy-Contemp) - Ex
Leon, Donna – 27th in series
Atlantic Monthly Press – March 2017

Once again Donna Leon has proven that police-based mystery story does not need graphic violence, car chases, detectives getting into life-threatening situations, profanity, or sex scenes to provide a well-written story. There is not the adrenalin rush so common in this genre. For those familiar with the Commissario Guido Brunnetti series, THE TEMPTATION OF FORGIVENESS offers the same group of characters, primarily Guido’s wife Paola; Vice-Questore Giuseppe Patta, Commissario Claudia Griffoni, and Signorina Elettra, Patta’s gatekeeper and amazing source of information. For those who have not read the previous books, you’ll still be able to appreciate the book as a stand-alone.
Soon after Brunnetti arrived at work one morning, a woman was escorted into his office. He recognized her as a colleague of his wife’s, but didn't really know her. Eventually he learned that she was concerned about her fifteen-year-old son. During the past year, his grades and dropped and his attitude had changed considerably. She thought he might be drugs and want to know that was a criminal offense. Brunnetti tried to find out the source of the drugs, but the mother was rather evasive.
That night, that he was called to the scene of a possible crime. A man was found bleeding and unconscious at the bottom staircase near the canal. He had no identification on him nor did there appear to be any witnesses. The police could not determine whether it was an accident or if he had been assaulted. Brunnetti immediately recognized the man as the husband of the woman who had been in his office. Following a long night in a slow-moving emergency room, after series of x-rays tests and scans, the doctor said the man had suffered severe brain damage and didn't know if he would ever regain consciousness or, if he did, would be able to communicate.
Brunnetti wanted to both find source of drugs. In the process, he discovered a scam involving elderly, confused people, a pharmacist, and a doctor.
As in all of the books in the series, Donna Leon provided a compelling picture of Venice: its people, its atmosphere, changes in the city, and the workings of the city government and the police department. Throughout the book, Brunnetti referred to Sophocles’s Antigone” with its examination of right and wrong, when should a law be broken, and at what cost?
Tidbits:
Five men who neither spoke Italian nor could explain the meaning of certain road signs were provided with a complicated wiring system so they could pass the test to get driver's licenses.
There are many Italian accents that enable someone to know where the speaker learned to speak the language. The story explains several of them. That knowledge helps bring people together or divides them. Some people who have contact with the public, such as police officers, learn to adopt those accents to facilitate the conversations with people they interview.
Because of her gender experiences, Griffoni is able to see situations, e.g., control by men of women, in ways that her male colleagues do not.
Paolo explains the difference between life and novels:

"That's why people like novels.... In most novels, things get explained to them by the narrator. They get told why people did what they did. We’re accustomed to that voice, telling us what to think.
"It's too easy. And in the end, it's so unlike life, so fake....
"Life doesn't have a narrator – it's full of lies and half-truths – so we never know anything for sure, not really.”

I’m not sure what the first chapter, getting immersed in a very heavy fog while taking a water taxi to work, is supposed to mean, unless it represents life: Suddenly, everything changes and you can’t see where you are. Then it clears up.
Unfortunately, too many chapters should have been combined. They are a continuation of the same characters in the same place. Minus one star for that..

Donna Leon isn’t necessarily a household name among mystery readers --- though she should be --- yet one finds her books, featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, resting here and there on shelves and coffee tables. Booksellers frequently recommend her novels, knowing that if a patron reads one, he or she will be back for more. As is the case with the best literary series, each book builds gently on what has gone before. Still, it is possible to begin anywhere and comfortably pick up the thread of the lives of the primary and secondary characters.

This is especially true of THE TEMPTATION OF FORGIVENESS, the 27th installment of the series, which presents the understated yet razor-sharp investigator with what is possibly his most complex mystery to date, arising from what appears to be a somewhat simple crime that has a particularly tragic result.

Things begin for Brunetti with an unexpected visit from Professoressa Crosera, a friend and colleague of Brunetti’s wife. The professor is concerned that her teenage son is using drugs that he may be obtaining at the private school he is attending. She believes that if Brunetti and his colleagues simply find who is selling the drugs at school and arrest them, the problem will be solved. Of course, Brunetti knows that the situation is much more complicated than that.

He barely has time to go through the motions of making an attempt to acquiesce Crosera’s request when he is brought into another case. This involves an attack that has left an unknown man comatose. Upon seeing the victim, Brunetti recognizes him immediately. He is Tullio Gasparini, Crosera’s husband. Crosera claims that she has no idea what her husband was doing out late at night in an unfamiliar part of town. Brunetti believes that Gasparini was attempting to ferret out the truth as to whether or not his son was involved in drugs, and, if so, who the supplier was.

What follows is an intriguing account of police procedure in which the reader knows exactly as much as Brunetti --- no more, no less --- and thus reaches the same conclusions and frequent misconceptions. Brunetti is afforded the extremely valuable aid of Claudia Griffoni, his police partner, as well as the unofficial research talents of Signorina Elettra Zorzi, the administrative assistant of Brunetti’s prickly superior officer. Zorzi, notwithstanding her ability to penetrate database firewalls with great aplomb, has some problems of her own, but also provides the key that Brunetti, a shrewd and discerning investigator, requires to unlock the mystery of the attack on Gasparini and reveal a crime that the authorities didn’t even know was being committed.

Leon provides readers with some of her best writing and plotting. For example, she quietly and subtly evokes one of Percy Shelley’s best-known works without specifically mentioning either the author or the poem. However, the references to classics of western literature do not stop there. Sophocles’ Antigone is Brunetti’s bedtime reading at the end of each day that passes during his investigation, and it is that venerable and enduring play, with its examination of behavior and the law, that ultimately influences his resolution of the case and comes at the very end of this quietly fascinating work.

Once again, Leon gives us that rare novel that will satisfy fans of pure mysteries while entrancing those who are interested in personalities, cultures, and the complexities of life and living. Do not miss THE TEMPTATION OF FORGIVENESS or, for that matter, any of the books that have come before.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub