A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery - Doctored Evidence

Donna Leon books never fail to please the reader of good mysteries. Her character of Commissario Brunetti, his family, everyday citizens and especially the beautiful locales of Venice are well described and create wonderful pictures in the mind. I plan to buy many more.

Guido is my idea of the perfect commissario. He's smart, has a sense of humor, is a good father and husband and loves his wine and food. I applaud DL for sparing us from sexual writing, which never has a place in a good mystery.

Yes, Commissario Brunetti gets his man, and we meet the usual suspects, the time serving Patta, nasty cop Scarpa, elegantly coiffed and coiffured and utterly sexless Signorina Elettra, and Guido's lovely and totally predictable family, Paola, Chiara and Rafi.

It's all too pat, and the story line itself does not offer enough support for the continuing story elements. A nasty elderly woman is murdered and her Romanian maid is hastily accused of the deed. No spoiler here, but that adds nothing, no tension, to the very slack plot. All the key elements of the plot take place off stage. It's like Greek tragedy, except the characters have none of the requisite gravitas.

For that matter, it is the not too electric Signorina Elettra who does the procedural work that leads to the solving of the mystery behind the nasty old lady's death. Eletrra's powers of divination are just that, and it is not given to Guido, the reader or (I am confident) even the author to understand how she does it. The author could take a course in computer science, and also explain to us how Elettra has accumulated so many contacts and for that matter such a stunning wardrobe on a secretary's pay.

Oh, well. I do like the series. Even if I won't recommend this one.

I regret having to provide such a negative review for this book, however, Donna Leon has missed her mark (and her magic) with this work. I am an avid fan and have read ALL of her books and hold her to be one of the best mystery writers present-day (I even visited her apartment in Venice two weeks past!). Please, Ms. Leon, take some time off in Switzerland and bring back the magic of you work. Thanks for all the great entertainment and many hours of following in the "Footsteps of Brunetti". (And incidentally, you were a great "professoressa" while I was in your classes in Europe!) Attached is apartment in Venice previously occupied by Professor Leon.

Much of my response to this novel resonates with the feelings in my review of Fredrickson's similarly capable A Defence for the Dead. Leon is entirely capable in evoking elements of Venice, and she refreshingly never veers into the often ludicrous melodramatic action and dialogue so common in the genre. The opening, for example, felt really plausible, with all this time given to an intelligent woman having to deal with contemptuous bureaucracy, before finally bumping into someone with half a brain who'd take her seriously: anybody who's had to deal with big institutions (and that's probably most of her readers) knows how heroic it is to sometimes come across someone who will actually do their job. Moreover now this three-dimensional witness has introduced the basic mystery, she doesn't have to predictably become the love interest dodging bullets, but graciously moves off stage. Yeah, refreshing.

It was also novel that Leon creates a setting where half the game of the protagonists is to work within this flawed, with varying levels of corruption and incompetence. And rather than the standard of some dramatic exposure of the evil inner circle, we generally see the more textured issue of working around or even manipulating dodgy colleagues to actually be able to do your job (perhaps that particularly resonated with me at the moment, and I wouldn't have noticed it so much at other times in my work life :).

So, what's not to like? Very little - although it seemed out of character and less admirable where at one point Brunetti just loses it and shouts an apparently pretty empty threat at his spiteful junior officer, something that could only work against his aims in the long run. [Spoiler] And I never like it when the ultimate clue (c.f.Christie's generally inferior N or M?) is discovered by sheer accident - please, don't hinge an entire story on someone tripping over fortuitously.

But that's not my main beef. Getting back to the Fredrickson comparison, it's the question, "Is it enough to not get anything particularly wrong?". It's impressive - but is it enough. Nothing much made me groan or roll my eyes, but nothing really grabbed me either - the book never soared for me, there were no really special moments. I'd be prepared to try other books (particularly specific recommendations) - Leon is entirely capable - but I'm not going out of my way.

Commissario Guido Brunetti stories are some of the most delightful books available today. Guido and his family are reminders of life in a simpler time. It harkens back to a more leisurely time in America; I remember (all seven of us) sitting together for a meal and discussing things of the day with my parents. None of us would think of missing a family meal.

The reason for the story happened while Guido and family were on vacation in Ireland. A miserly old woman was bludgeoned to death in her home. She had a Romanian housekeeper (and personal slave) who was instantly declared the murderer when it was found that she had left the home with a large amount of money and boarded a train for home.

Unfortunately, when accosted by the police at a station close to the border, she ran across the tracks and was struck by a train. Three weeks after the case was closed, a neighbor comes to the police station and offers a very different story about the Romanian woman; Lt. Scarpa scoffs at her story and then sends her to Commissario Brunetti – to get the truth from her.

As Brunetti investigates discretely (because neither his boss nor Lt. Scarpa want the case reopened). He finds that things are not as simple as the police surmised. The author isn’t above describing the corruption in Italy – people cheat on their taxes, government employees give lucrative contracts to friends/family, politicians are caught with their hands in the taxpayer’s till often.

Through all of this, Brunetti stays true to his moral compass and his pursuit of injustice and crimes. Paola, Guido’s wife, always has her dander up about something; she is a perfect balance to Brunetti’s calm.

Guido Brunetti Series
1. Death at La Fenice (1992)
2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
3. The Anonymous Venetian (1994) aka Dressed for Death
4. A Venetian Reckoning (1995) aka Death and Judgment
5. Acqua Alta (1996) aka Death in High Water
6. The Death of Faith (1997) aka Quietly in Their Sleep
7. A Noble Radiance (1997)
8. Fatal Remedies (1999)
9. Friends in High Places (2000)
10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
11. Willful Behaviour (2002)
12. Uniform Justice (2003)
13. Doctored Evidence (2004)

I am reading all of the Brunetti books in order. This book is one of favorites so far. I love the atmosphere of these books which is, to me much, more important than solving the murders. I usually leave fairly long reviews, but I don't know if I can add much after all the great reviews about this book. The only thing I want to remark on and which surprised the heck out of Brunetti and me is when he realized he doesn't want Patta to leave. That was a big shocker! I found Patta's application to work for Interpol hilariously silly.

I usually read only a couple Donna Leon books each year, but I may go on to the next one very soon because I am very curious to see how Scarpa gets even.

Last year, the publication of US ex-pat Donna Leon's Uniform Justice - about a murder in an Italian military academy - marked her much-lauded return to the American stage after 7 years. (They ceased to be published originally because she believed the way her publishers were marketing her books was "vulgar".) The rest of the world over, she has been a regular feature on the bestseller lists, and determined American fans have only been able to acquire foreign copies. Thankfully, that is now slowly changing. Why thankfully? Because her Commissario Guido Brunetti series, set in her adopted home-city of Venice, is one of the most enjoyable currently being produced. It is a huge big sparkling gem in the crown of crime fiction - it is a treasure trove of pure enjoyment.
Doctored Evidence is the 13th in the award-winning series, and just as good as all the rest. An unpleasant old-woman is found murdered in her apartment by her doctor. She was not liked. Treating her maids no better than slaves, and keeping her television on loud almost every night are just two of the behaviours which alienate her from her neighbours. Suspicion immediately falls on her Romanian maid, who is missing and heading back to her country. As the police catch up with her at a train station on the border, she flees in desperation, and is killed as she runs across the tracks into the path of a train.
Finding a large amount of money on her person, they believe they've found their woman. That is, until one of the victim's neighbours returns from a business trip in London, with strong evidence to suggest that she was not the killer. The investigating officer dismisses her, passing her off to Brunetti, who starts to investigate the case unofficially, and uncovers a mystery far more complex than the one they all suspected.
The fact that Leon writes these novels purely for pleasure (she has said that she would far rather attend the opera if it came to a choice) and not for fame or money (uncomfortable with any kind of "celebrity", she refuses to allow them to be published in Italy) really shines through this marvellous series. It is infused with something marvellous. This is crime fiction for the sake of it. It is pure and it is wonderful.
That's not to say it isn't serious, either, because it is. Donna Leon does for Venice what Ruth Rendell does for Britain and Michael Connelly for L.A. Like many great crime writers, Leon uses her fiction as a way of highlighting things about the world - in this case specifically Venice - which concern her. Indeed, often they expose a level of corruption which Signor Berlusconi would not be at all pleased about! Doctored Evidence focuses perhaps less on general civic corruption - although Leon can't resist throwing hints of it into the mix - and more on a kind of personal corruption, while still managing to write as piercingly and fascinatingly about the society of Venice as ever. She is in the fortunate position of an outsider able to look at a society from the inside, and she utilises that advantage brilliantly for her portrait of the city. These novels are practically drenched in culture, and their protagonist is wonderfully refreshing: he is not hard or gritty, nor particularly flawed or jaded; he is just a normal Italian, a very moral man who wrestles every day with justice and its ambiguities. Plus, his wife is wonderful! The plots are refreshing, too, in the way of much European fiction: they are much less formulaic than some American or British fiction. Leon's mysteries are predictable only in their excellence. Doctored Evidence is a wonderful novel, a pure, sublime joy that no reader should allow to pass by.

Early in Doctored Evidence, Commissario Guido Brunetti asks his wife, Paola, about a book she is reading . . . a text on religion that has been assigned to their daughter, Chiara. They muse about the seven deadly sins and speculate about whether or not anyone takes those sins seriously any more. During his case, Brunetti assumes that only certain sins can be motive enough for murder. Is he right?

As the story opens, Signora Battestini has been bludgeoned to death by someone strong. She's an old lady who never leaves her apartment, but nothing has been taken. A missing housekeeper seems worth tracking down by Lieutenant Scarpa, one of Vice-Questore Patta's enforcers. In the process of arresting her, a terrible accident takes place. Scarpa and Patta are satisfied that the housekeeper is the killer, and the case goes dormant. Brunetti is away on vacation at the time.

All might have stayed that way, but a neighbor comes to report that the housekeeper is probably innocent. Scarpa tries to get rid of the neighbor, but Brunetti ends up involved. From there, the real investigation begins.

One of the most interesting parts of this story is when Dona Leon fills in some background by Signorina Elletra Zorzi and her seemingly magical ability to access records that shouldn't be available to her. You'll be astonished by the contrast between her personal scruples and her unscrupulous methods for gaining police information.

Brunetti also gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar after doing some illegal searching. How will he handle the potential for exposure and discipline?

The mystery in this book is pretty good. It will be some time before you'll be able to figure out who the murderer is and the motive. The ultimate explanation was credible and added to the pedestrian tone of dealing with the minor and major annoyances of life:

How should you persuade the neighbors to make less noise at night?

How can an exploited housekeeper with questionable papers protect herself from exploitation?

How should a threat to respectability be met?

How can endless official delays be overcome?

Take a ride on the #1 Vaporetto if it's not crowded and enjoy the sights and sounds of Venice (I wouldn't dare suggest you try to enjoy the odors of Venice).

Early in Doctored Evidence, Commissario Guido Brunetti asks his wife, Paola, about a book she is reading . . . a text on religion that has been assigned to their daughter, Chiara. They muse about the seven deadly sins and speculate about whether or not anyone takes those sins seriously any more. During his case, Brunetti assumes that only certain sins can be motive enough for murder. Is he right?

As the story opens, Signora Battestini has been bludgeoned to death by someone strong. She's an old lady who never leaves her apartment, but nothing has been taken. A missing housekeeper seems worth tracking down by Lieutenant Scarpa, one of Vice-Questore Patta's enforcers. In the process of arresting her, a terrible accident takes place. Scarpa and Patta are satisfied that the housekeeper is the killer, and the case goes dormant. Brunetti is away on vacation at the time.

All might have stayed that way, but a neighbor comes to report that the housekeeper is probably innocent. Scarpa tries to get rid of the neighbor, but Brunetti ends up involved. From there, the real investigation begins.

One of the most interesting parts of this story is when Dona Leon fills in some background by Signorina Elletra Zorzi and her seemingly magical ability to access records that shouldn't be available to her. You'll be astonished by the contrast between her personal scruples and her unscrupulous methods for gaining police information.

Brunetti also gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar after doing some illegal searching. How will he handle the potential for exposure and discipline?

The mystery in this book is pretty good. It will be some time before you'll be able to figure out who the murderer is and the motive. The ultimate explanation was credible and added to the pedestrian tone of dealing with the minor and major annoyances of life:

How should you persuade the neighbors to make less noise at night?

How can an exploited housekeeper with questionable papers protect herself from exploitation?

How should a threat to respectability be met?

How can endless official delays be overcome?

Take a ride on the #1 Vaporetto if it's not crowded and enjoy the sights and sounds of Venice (I wouldn't dare suggest you try to enjoy the odors of Venice).

Early in Doctored Evidence, Commissario Guido Brunetti asks his wife, Paola, about a book she is reading . . . a text on religion that has been assigned to their daughter, Chiara. They muse about the seven deadly sins and speculate about whether or not anyone takes those sins seriously any more. During his case, Brunetti assumes that only certain sins can be motive enough for murder. Is he right?

As the story opens, Signora Battestini has been bludgeoned to death by someone strong. She's an old lady who never leaves her apartment, but nothing has been taken. A missing housekeeper seems worth tracking down by Lieutenant Scarpa, one of Vice-Questore Patta's enforcers. In the process of arresting her, a terrible accident takes place. Scarpa and Patta are satisfied that the housekeeper is the killer, and the case goes dormant. Brunetti is away on vacation at the time.

All might have stayed that way, but a neighbor comes to report that the housekeeper is probably innocent. Scarpa tries to get rid of the neighbor, but Brunetti ends up involved. From there, the real investigation begins.

One of the most interesting parts of this story is when Dona Leon fills in some background by Signorina Elletra Zorzi and her seemingly magical ability to access records that shouldn't be available to her. You'll be astonished by the contrast between her personal scruples and her unscrupulous methods for gaining police information.

Brunetti also gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar after doing some illegal searching. How will he handle the potential for exposure and discipline?

The mystery in this book is pretty good. It will be some time before you'll be able to figure out who the murderer is and the motive. The ultimate explanation was credible and added to the pedestrian tone of dealing with the minor and major annoyances of life:

How should you persuade the neighbors to make less noise at night?

How can an exploited housekeeper with questionable papers protect herself from exploitation?

How should a threat to respectability be met?

How can endless official delays be overcome?

Take a ride on the #1 Vaporetto if it's not crowded and enjoy the sights and sounds of Venice (I wouldn't dare suggest you try to enjoy the odors of Venice).

Maria Grazia Battestini was an old women about whom nothing good could be said, not even by the most generous of souls. Whoever had killed her must have taken her completely by surprise.

Battestini maid an illegal Romanian woman was missing and currently the prime suspect, the police were hot in pursuit. Located at the central station trying to leave the country the maid is killed in a fatal train accident. only suspect dead, case closed.

Commissario Brunetti has just return from his vacation. His first day back on the job he encounters Signora Gismondi who also had just returned from a vacation in London. Signora Gismondi was Maria Battestini neighbour and had learned of her death on her return. Signora Gismondi also knew the Romanian maid, and is rather forthcoming with some relevant information. Brunetti intrigued - unofficially - investigates. The motive looks like greed or was he looking at the wrong deadly sin.

Doctored Evidence is the thirteenth novel in the Brunetti series and for me my first. This book does not disappoint as murder has been set off against the backdrop of Venice. Donna Leon the author lives in Venice you can clearly see from the writing that she enjoys living there, the story flows really well and beautifully pieced together. Commissario Brunetti is a character you warm to straight away but also for me in this book, Brunetti's source of information Signorina Elettra is a great character, a women who uses her contacts and connections, which seem just as corrupt, Elettra mind is as sharp as a razor. When reading murder mysteries I always try to put a face to the characters in Signoriana Elettra case an Italian actress by the name of Claudia Gerini came to mind. A face for Commissario Brunetti I will have to investigate more, that's going to be a tough one. Donna Leon has written a whole Brunetti series of whodunit, so I will be backtracking to the beginning and with thirteen left to read through, my mind will be occupied for quite a while.

Donna Leon, who was born in New Jersey, has lived in Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China, where she worked as a teacher, before moving to Venice many years ago to teach and now to write. "Doctored Evidence" is another Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery set in, and around her adopted city in which; I think, by now, she knows the best place to go for pizza, the worst road to avoid for construction, and the most impossibly noisy, motorcycle clogged, neighborhood. Her recent Commissario Brunetti mystery "Friends in High Places," won the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for fiction. She has also been awarded the German Corinne prize for her novels.

In "Doctored Evidence," a wealthy old woman, widely known as the nastiest in her neighborhood, is found brutally murdered in her apartment. Police suspect the latest immigrant maid (they don't generally last but a month or two), who has disappeared and is thought to be heading for her native Romania. The immigrant, when approached by the border police at the train station, runs for it and is killed as she crosses the tracks. She's carrying a lot of money, and forged papers. So she's evidently guilty, police thinking goes.

But a clearly competent neighbor of the old woman's returns from a business trip to London, and throws some light on the day of the woman's death. The neighbor met with the immigrant maid that day: she gave her the going-home money, and she knows the immigrant would not have had enough time to kill the old woman before she had to leave to catch her intended train. So Brunetti decides to quietly investigate the case himself.

Italy, by the way, is quite a wealthy country these days, with a high standard of living,and, for a Catholic country, a remarkably low birth rate. If it were not for a constant stream of immigrants, legal and otherwise, to take the jobs Italians won't, there'd be nobody to look after the children and the elderly, to enable the extremely high percentage of Italian women who leave the home to work to continue in their careers. In this regard Italy resembles all the traditional western hemisphere.

Be that as it may, Brunetti finds a lot of people who hated Maria Grazi Battestini, including her heirs, and even her doctor. The doctor thinks, " She was an old cow and he hated her. Because he was a doctor and she his patient, he felt guilty about hating her, but not so guilty as to make him hate her any the less. Nasty, greedy, ill-tempered, forever complaining about her health and the few people who still had the stomach for her company, Maria Grazia Battestini was a woman about whom nothing good could be said, not even by the most generous of souls. The priest had given up on her long ago, and her neighbours spoke of her with distaste, sometimes with open animosity. Her family remained connected to her only by means of the laws governing inheritance. But he was her doctor, so he had no choice but to make his weekly visit...."

Eventually Brunetti will solve the mystery of the old woman's death, perhaps not entirely credibly, and it's not at all clear that his discoveries will actually result in a guilty verdict, or even a trial. As is not at all uncommon in Leon's books, in fact, it's likely that nothing will change. Certainly not the death of the Romanian maid, Florinda Ghiorghiu, whom we come to realize, too late, was merely fleeing the police as a matter of sensible policy learned in her homeland, and reinforced as an illegal immigrant in Italy. As ever, Leon continues to remind us that murder, violent death, is not actually a dinner party game, but a sad business. Her political views inform her opinion, of course, but many of us, even those of us who love mysteries, prefer to remember what murder actually is. If you do too, if you can stomach a bit of grit with your foreign glamor, this book, and this series, may be for you.

This novel's murder mystery was inspired by the author's real life trouble with a neighbor who kept her TV at too loud a volume despite complaints. Haven't we all had similar experiences? But does this inconsiderate behavior justify murder? And what if the offending person was not very nice to begin with and was abusive to her illegal immigrant housekeepers, greedy and self-centered?
I have become a fan of Donna Leon this summer. I plan to read all her work. This story felt like a visit with a dear friend. As much as I enjoy Leon's philosophical approach, I am coming to believe her stories could use a little more pep. The pace of the narrative is so slow, very little actually happens, and I find myself nodding off all too frequently. A little too cozy.

Did you like Doctored Evidence published in March 2005? This is the reprinted edition.

This is the story of the Romanian maid who (allegedly) kills her elderly employer and makes a dash for the border with a forged passport and scads of cash. Just as she is about to be apprehended, the maid made a run for it -- into the path of an oncoming train where the maid made a big splash (so to speak). But the case doesn't end there; it STARTS there. Our beloved Comissario finds that the maid could not possibly have had time to kill her employer and make the dash; the cash is not stolen; and there's more than meets the eye.

Isn't this always the case with Donna Leon's mysteries? Isn't this why we love to read them? This is a top notch crime book - a really good murder mystery and the ever charming Guido Brunetti just makes it all the better.

Definitely worth reading.

I always like Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti series.
The characters are very human, full of ironies and tragic humor.
Also enjoyable are the bits and pieces of wisdom delivered through Brunetti's observation of characters around him, not to mention the mouth watering reference to his wife's cooking delicious dishes.
Ms leon takes the reader in the heart of a neghborhood and to the bedroom of an Italian society that many of us have yet to exoerience first hand.
It's not literature, nor is it a hardcore crime fiction. A simple, good story of life in general.
You will like it, just read bit by it, to avoid fatigue.
Four stars, because the deduction and revelations about the crimes could be more artful, than dependent on chance factor so much.

Donna Leon's thirteenth Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery novel begins with the discovery of the very brutal murder of a hateful and despised old lady. The victim had harassed her neighbors for the past five years with her blaringly loud television. The immediate suspect is the woman's Romanian housekeeper, who was accosted crossing the Italian border on a return train trip to her native country. The suspect panicked, fled the train and was accidentally run over by another oncoming train. Brunetti was on vacation in Ireland at the time and Lieutenant Scarpa, a vindictive colleague, quickly declared the murder solved and essentially closed the case. Upon his return, Brunetti reopens the case when a conscientious women contacts the police declaring the housekeeper's innocence and providing a plausible alibi. This sets stage for a battle of wills between Brunetti and his hated arch-rival Lieutenant Scarpa. As always, the good guys are the triumvirate of Brunetti, loyal Inspector Vianello, and the wonderfully clever Signorina Elettra, the Vice-Questore's secretary. Signorina Elettra, using her computer hacking skills, digs up relevant information such as secret bank accounts, money transfers, and telephone records on a wide range of suspects. After Brunetti has a discussion with his wife Paola about the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth), he tries to reason out which of these sins was the motive for the murder of the old lady.

Leon does a marvelous job of introducing her varied cast of interesting characters and some of the current attitudes of Venetians. These include prejudice towards Eastern European immigrants and gays; the dread of AIDS; tax evasion and suspected construction fraud. As usual, we are treated to Leon's entertaining descriptions of Signorina Elettra's wardrobe, Paola's gourmet meals and the current activities of the Brunetti kids, Chiara and Raffi. In addition, we get some behind the scenes insights into the postal service, the legal profession, the schools administration and a bakery.

In DOCTORED EVIDENCE, Commissario Brunetti has become more impatient and seems to excessively browbeat witnesses and potential suspects -- no more Mr. Nice Guy. There are some memorable scenes where he locks horns with the easy-to-hate Lieutenant Scarpa.

Doctored Evidence starts strongly, but ultimately is disappointing for regular fans of Leon. It starts with the murder of an elderly woman who was rude to almost everyone. It appears that her immigrant maid did her in. The maid suffers a tragic fate while escaping from the police.

Or was she escaping and did she even commit the crime? As with any Leon story, there more than meets the eye and it takes Commissario Brunetti all of his skills, as well as his staff's, to find the answer.

I found the back plot with the immigrant maid to be very well handled and it made me think a lot about immigration into Italy and how it is changing Italian society. She handles this portion of the book as well as Henning Mankell has handled a similar these about Swedish society (see his excellent Faceless Killers.)

However, the rest of the plot did not seems believable to me, and did not fully engage me.

It's a rare miss for Leon. You won't dislike the book, but it is not up to her normal level of plotting and writing.

Doctored Evidence starts strongly, but ultimately is disappointing for regular fans of Leon. It starts with the murder of an elderly woman who was rude to almost everyone. It appears that her immigrant maid did her in. The maid suffers a tragic fate while escaping from the police.

Or was she escaping and did she even commit the crime? As with any Leon story, there more than meets the eye and it takes Commissario Brunetti all of his skills, as well as his staff's, to find the answer.

I found the back plot with the immigrant maid to be very well handled and it made me think a lot about immigration into Italy and how it is changing Italian society. She handles this portion of the book as well as Henning Mankell has handled a similar these about Swedish society (see his excellent Faceless Killers.)

However, the rest of the plot did not seems believable to me, and did not fully engage me.

It's a rare miss for Leon. You won't dislike the book, but it is not up to her normal level of plotting and writing.

I picked up my first Commisario Brunetti mystery in the train station in Stuttgart on the way home from
Switzerland in fall, 2000. Or was it 2003? Maybe it was 'A Nobel Radiance', maybe not. I was charmed by the
characters and description of Venice. I was never disappointed before but this book, up to about half way through, left me feeling a bit cold, not so charmed as I'd come to expect. Commissario Brunetti has a shorter temper and less patience than I
recall, although this book was written in 2005.

Easily my favorite of series so far. Love the discussion of morality als Cicero as it relates to the plot. Love the dynamics of Brunetti and his wife. Unexpected plot angles. Leon is such a gifted author.

Reminiscent of Durrell's "sense of place," Leon's writing evokes Venice and its people with strong characterization, an obvious love of its food, weather, bureaucratic wrangles and rich dialogue. The plot is secondary to these thoroughly enjoyable features. There are two or three scenes where the Commissario interviews players in the evolving murder plot which are so carefully detailed that the reader feels he is seeing a movie. One does not have to worry about cardboard characters and implausible plots; Leon is a fine writer and a joy to read. "We'll always have Venice," by reading Donna Leon.

After reading several "action" type books, it was good to read something without detailed descriptions of gore. Brunetti is a believable character with human foibles. The reader knows as much about the crime (a murder in this case) as Brunetti and shares in his solving the case. Most important, the book is well-written. I'll explore more of this series. I did not give it five stars because I reserve that for books that I cannot put down.

Commissario Brunetti, truly one of only a handful of Venice's finest, solves the murder of an elderly, hateful harridan using his intelligence, humor, skill, and humanity. Follow him through the monumental buildings, calle, and offices of this most intriguing of cities, without once motoring down the Grand Canal. And learn something about the Venetian psyche in the bargain. Nearly as good as being there, but be forewarned, do not read Donna Leon while hungry. Guido Brunetti eats very well.

Nancy in Seattle, WA : A gradually building tale of social nonentites and an offensive old lady with few clues as to the reason for a murder or hwo did it. There are mystical web searches, talking to peripheral individuals, a false scent or two and accidental findings. It is fascinating to read of the Italian justice system.

For all her "baker's dozen" Guido Brunetti books, Donna Leon continues to amaze this reader with her ability to sustain a police procedural so competently, so willingly, and so fantastically.
It's Venice once again and the good Commissario finds himself lured into what appears to be a routine case: a "foreigner" has been apprehended for murder and theft and before the police can secure her, she bolts and is run over by an oncoming train. A simple case. Case closed.

Ah, but here is where Brunetti comes in. Certain suspicious elements emerge and within a few minutes, he's completely immersed into the whole scene.
Along the way, Donna Leon incorporates several socially significant issues (as she always does) that serve only to enhance the plot outline. Her critique on Venezian politics and life in general in that Pearl of the Adriatic stand on their own merit.
Once again, Leon's brilliance at creating memorable characters make this just routine for her: but for her readers, each volume is a true adventure in itself.

This Brunetti mystery had a rather sinister twist. It was quite different from other Donna Leon stories.
The plot development took in conversations and observations from various characters. The build up created
a somewhat unbelievable story of a handicapped boy/ man. I enjoyed the convoluted story nevertheless,
and was intrigued by the final outcome.

I have been reading all the Donna Leon mysteries in sequence and have enjoyed them immensely. This one, however, I found tedious. VERY late in the book, we come to learn about a character so minor that I had to re-read the whole book to find his name mentioned - and he was the culprit. I never did understand his motivation and finally decided it wasn't worth the effort.

Just finished reading this book on a trip to Venice. While the context of her stories is always interesting, the plot line in this book was weak. Several theories behind the crime were explored and abandoned with little connection between them and virtually no connection to the final outcome. Her other books (e.g. A Noble Radiance) are much better.