Alibi

I had the immense pleasure of speaking with Mr. Kannon about this book. I found him to be one of the nicest men on the planet, and a man genuinely interested in the human spirit. Such is the backbone for Alibi, a book he purposefully executed differently from his previous works. Unlike Los Alamos and The Good German, the mystery here is not about the crime so much as the people who commit it. "You'll know who did it early on," he said. And he's right. But that's not the point. The point is how and why they did it.

As Kanon himself is apt to explain, there was a gray area that existed for a lot of Europeans in WWII. Many were forced into situations they didn't want to be in. Many played the odds and joined sides they thought would ensure their survivial. And some found themselves with a new freedom to unleash darker sides they'd been hiding, hoping in the end they'd be vindicated. No matter the case, the mystery here is but a question: during the nazi occupation of Venice, who was really at fault for helping the Germans? The answer is really up to the reader to conclude.

This is certainly the darkest of all his books. I wasn't even sure if I should be routing for the protagonist, as he is both likeable and infuriating. Of course, Kanon does this on purpose, puttting us, the reader, in the position of those Italians who sided with the Germans for whatever reason they did--we're siding with Adam because we have to, because he's the story, our own private Venice, but we're not sure we really like him or understand him. He's a good guy, with good intentions, but he's also a bad guy, acting before he thinks. He's a gray area.

The book does contain a somewhat convoluted type of story telling where the protagonist forces the plot to take turns based on lies that we, the reader, know to be false. In this respect, it can be a little harder to read than his previous works. And there are moments when the police inspector seems to be asking the wrong questions. And the dialogue, though fantastically real, can be a touch homogenized with so many staccato Italian accents. But these are mostly forgiven as we progress through a web of lies that grow thicker on every page.

The book ends with a wholly satisfactory conclusion (and a tense chase) that stuns the reader.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to explore what people went through during the war. But it might be best to read any one of his other books first, as they are more conventional and easier to get through. At the end of the day this is his most ambitious book, and I believe it hits the mark--just not in the traditional way. But yes, it's a great read.

To set an historical thriller in fabled Venice, which escaped the destruction of World War II, and people it in the past with vacationing Germans and collaborating Italians, and in the present with expatriate Americans, is clever. So is pairing a young American ex-Nazi-hunter and a Jewish camp survivor whose whirlwind romance seems to consist of daily rutting in a rented room. That they also are incompatible and vaguely unsympathetic is another reverse for Joseph Kanon in a novel full of unexpected moral dilemmas, as were his previous "Los Alamos" and "The Good German."

In the process of vetting a suave Italian doctor who is courting his widowed mother, our hero is assailed by all sorts of ambiguities about who did what, when and why to whom in the waning days of World War II. Venice was R&R time for Germans then and Venetians were, apparently, accommodating. At a party to celebrate their engagement, his fiancé denounces his mother's suitor as the fiend who sent her father to die at Auschwitz; the party is ruined, of course, but not their romance, not even after several murders and a police probe casts doubt upon her veracity.

If Kanon's characters are stereotypes, at least they are full-bloodied and talkative ones. The author is good at creating believable set-pieces, such as an elegant ball to which Peggy Guggenheim cannot come, a tense confrontation in a tucked-away bistro, and two evenings at the famed Fenice Opera House that bookend the novel. He clearly has spent enough time in this storied city to convey its rituals and ebb-and-flow of daily life (compare it to John Berendt's Venice in his recent "City of Falling Angels.")

As long as Kanon stays in the present, strolling the calles or slicing through canals, "Alibi" is as interesting as his previous novels. His matter-of-fact descriptive style is oddly suited to this amusement park city, and as before his sense of interacting place and period is unerring. But when these people discuss the misdeeds of the past, burying us in expository detail, Kanon loses track not only of his narrative but of his readers as well. His characters talk too much and too repetitively anyway. He needs to shut them up and tell their stories, which can be quite compelling.

Joseph Kanon's new novel, "Alibi," is set in Venice in 1946. World War II has ended, and both expatriates and natives of Venice dress up, attend parties, and live for the pleasures of the moment. Grace Miller is an American widow who rents a lovely house in Venice. She has become reacquainted with an old friend from her youth, Dr. Gianni Maglione. She and Gianni wish to marry, but Gianni has a past, and it will come back to haunt them both.

Grace's son, Adam, a war crimes investigator for the U. S. government, is in Venice to visit his mother. He falls in love with a Jewish woman named Claudia, who has terrible memories of her traumatic wartime experiences. Adam wants to gain Claudia's trust, but she has been badly scarred in the past, and she may never be able to forget what she has endured. Meanwhile, Adam starts to investigate Gianni's activities during the war, and what he finds throws everyone's lives into turmoil.

"Alibi" is suspenseful and gripping. The descriptions of Venice are detailed and vivid, and they add immeasurably to the book's atmosphere. Kanon deals skillfully with some complex moral questions. Is it acceptable to cooperate with an evil government to save one's own life? Should people be held culpable for crimes that occurred years ago? Is it ever right to use violence to avenge past wrongs? Kanon also explores the political and social corruption that is often hidden beneath the veneer of polite society.

Kanon falters, however, towards the end of the book, when too many melodramatic events dilute the story's impact. Still, "Alibi" is a strong character study of flawed people trying to cope with unpleasant memories, guilt, and the struggle to survive at all costs. It is also an effective exploration of crime, punishment, and the terrible price of war.

By 1946 still horrified by what he has seen, former U.S. Army war crimes investigator Adam Miller travels to Venice to see his widowed mother Grace. To his surprise the city is like a beautiful oasis in war ravaged Europe unscathed by the horrors that Adam has seen especially in Germany.

Adam meets Italian Jew Claudia Grassini at a party. They fall in love and begin an affair. However, Claudia spent time in the Fossoli concentration camp, leaving her feeling guilty that she lived while so many others died. While Adam courts Claudia, Grace is seeing a pre war lover aristocratic Dr. Gianni Mangion. Adam does not trust Gianni sensing something sinister perhaps involving the Fascist years. He begins investigating his mother's lover and soon murders occur ultimately leading to the good soldier Adam choosing between justice and the law with either selection further devastating his already weakened inner soul.

ALIBI is a terrific historical tale that uses war crimes, a murder mystery, and a romance to tell the tale of Post WWII Venice. The story line is fast-paced and action packed never slowing down for a moment. However what makes this thriller so chilling and thrilling is the deep cast. Adam, Grace, Claudia, and Gianni, supported by the grand city and residents trying to heal, are fully developed characters that bring home the era. The audience receives a fantastic novel that showcases Joseph Kanon's skills.

Harriet Klausner

This book exudes tension, especially on the part of its two main characters, Adam and Claudia. It's a case of seemingly good people doing bad things for good reasons, at least in their minds. Their actions, of course, compromise their goodness, and their consciences. Keeping a morbid secret between the two of them becomes an unbearable strain, on themselves and on their relationship. The story is set in Venice immediately after WWII, and Adam is a former investigator of German war crimes for the American Army. Claudia is an Italian Jew who stayed alive by becoming the mistress of a Nazi officer. Adam meets Claudia at a party while staying with his mother, who is about to marry an Italian doctor that she has known since before Adam's father died. Adam becomes obsessed with the notion that his mother's fiancé was a Nazi sympathizer, largely based on Claudia's eyewitness account of his having turned her father over to the SS. The plot becomes a bit tangled, and the finale is especially confusing. In any case, as far as the deeds of Adam and Claudia, the big question here is whether the end justifies the means.

Adam Miller hunted Nazis in post World War II Germany. Now, he wants to recover at his mother's home in Venice.

He spends his time wandering the city, enthralled by its beauty and mystery. Venice - the palazzi, the opera, the canals - remains unchanged by the war. But its people fail to forget. Everyone has an alibi.

At a party, Adam meets the enigmatic and charming Claudia. The casual affair they begin grows into a turbulent romance.

Claudia is scarred by her experience during the war. She was imprisoned for being a Jew and served as mistress to the camp's overseer in order to survive. Adam must save her from herself to save their new love.

Adam's widowed mother, Grace, reunites with an old friend. Soon, she and Dr. Gianni Maglione are engaged. Adam suspects Gianni of gold-digging and Claudia accuses him of betraying her father to the Nazis. When Adam investigates Gianni's past he discovers a secret that may destroy them all.

Gianni's eventual murder leaves Adam torn between justifying his own involvement and protecting the people he loves from the recent past. He finds himself entangled in an elaborate alibi.

The mood created by the book places us so completely in the Venetian setting that we feel as if we are actually there. The characters are compelling and the plot is nearly flawless. The novel strikes at our worst fears about ourselves and shows us the nature of war and the trauma it inflicts.

1946 Venice is as seductive as it's always been. Untouched by the bombs of WWII, expatriates and socialites gather in parties and balls, eager to forget their inconveniences of recent years. Adam Miller, an American soldier and war crimes investigator in Germany, has just been demobilized and joins his widowed mother, Grace, in her rented palazzo. He meets his mother's fiancée, Gianni Maglione, a doctor of impeccable reputation and pedigree, or so we're led to believe. Adam takes an instant dislike to him and believes that Gianni is a gold-digger. Adam also meets a young Jewish woman, Claudia Grassini, with whom he falls in love. At a party, Claudia sees Gianni and accuses him of having her sick father transported to Auschwitz where he died. Gianni vehemently denies the accusation but Adam is not convinced of his innocence. Using his army contacts, he digs into Gianni's past, looking for evidence to prove his guilt, but before he can get to the truth, a murder is committed and an elaborate alibi is conceived.

"Alibi" is not a conventional whodunit since the reader knows who the killer(s) is. What it's supposed to do is provoke thought along the lines of: Is a murder of revenge a justifiable crime? Are crimes committed during wartime any less heinous due to the need to survive? Does cooperating with the enemy for self-preservation an inevitable choice? Where do we draw the line between murder and self-defense? These and other moral dilemmas are supposed to be the novel's focus. Unfortunately, these become buried in a sloppy plot and non-stop talking. As an historical thriller, it's very lean on the thrills and is probably the most "talkative" novel I've read. Every page is leaden with lengthy and drab dialogues--every single page (I'm not exaggerating) to the point that I really stopped caring long before it ended:

Adam: I'm sorry I'm late. Any news?
Grace: Nothing. Something terrible's happened.
Police: Signora, we don't know that.
Grace: Of course it has. What else could it be? What's awful is not to know.
Police: I've sent a man to Dr. Maglione's house. He will call if--
Grace: He comes home? He won't. Something's happened.
Adam: No word at the hospitals? Anywhere?
Police: No. So a great mystery. But, let us hope, with a simple explanation. The best thing now would be to sleep.
Grace: Sleep.

Now, imagine that level of dialogue for 400+ pages. It reads like a script for some amateur theater production for a high school audience. Claudia's "lines," being she's Italian and marginally fluent in English, are treated worse. All throughout. She is. Speaking in. Staccato.

I'm not fond of romance, but can appreciate it if done well. Adam and Claudia are supposed to be madly in love. Yet nowhere in this novel did I read anything that would convince me of such. Their relationship is devoid of the passion one would expect from two young people crazy about each other. And no, jumping into bed at the first opportunity doesn't count. Also, for a Nazi hunter, Adam comes across as a wimp. I'm not expecting some superhero, but at least someone dynamic. If I were a former SS informant, at the very least, I should be a tad nervous being around this guy. As he is, even an expat senior citizen regards him as rather foolhardy. The plot becomes confusing to the point where one no longer knows who's doing what to whom--are the Fascists still after the communists; are the communists after the partisans; are the polizia pro-Fascist, pro-partisan or both; who was really snitching to the Nazis? The only thing definite is that the expats don't care. They're too busy partying.

It's tempting to compare this with other mysteries/thrillers set in Venice. Donna Leon's Brunetti series, for example, is so very engaging and entertaining with its interesting and colorful stock characters and witty dialogues. Andrew Wilson's "The Lying Tongue" is compelling and a bona fide thriller. If you're after some good mysteries with Venice as the backdrop, these would be better choices. "Alibi," on the other hand, was a great idea marred by banal dialogues and uninteresting characters.

Joseph Kanon provides us with a good understanding of what it must have been like in post WWII Italy in his novel, Alibi. An interesting tale about those in Italy who had to "go along to get along" during the occupation of the county during WWII. Hard to believe if you were not there, but Adam, the main character has no trouble judging the actions of those involved when his love interest, Claudia, exposes the actions of Adam's mother's future husband during the occupation of Italy.

Determined to keep his mother away from a potential "gold digging" husband, Adam does all he can to uncover the questionable past of his future father. Ironically, Adam is thrown into a delima of his own when he confronts Gianni. Alibi takes off from there into an interesting mental and physical chase that provides the reader with a lot to think about.

This moody thriller, set in post-World War II Venice, has got a morally ambiguous hero, a beautiful, emotionally scarred woman, a story with more twists than the city's canals, and several
tense set pieces that could have come from the director's playbook.

All this takes place in a moody, romantic Venice, whose ancient buildings and canals had escaped the worst of the war. Kanon describes the scene with the eye of a tourist, and its people with the knowledge of an insider, giving us lyrical descriptions like this one: "Above all, the city was still beautiful, every turn of a corner a painting, the wa­ter a soft pastel in the early evening, before the lamps came on."

Kanon has written several historical thrillers -- I especially loved "Los Alamos," set in the complex that begat the atomic bomb -- and he has an eye for creating stories that pose complex moral questions and whose reso­lutions are often messy and ambiguous. He's the thriller writer for intelligent readers.

As Joseph Kanon's fourth novel Alibi begins, World War II has just ended and Adam Miller, just released from the army, has joined his expatriate mother in Venice. Adam is uncertain of his future but she isn't: she has hooked up with Gianni, a local doctor who Adam initially views warily but with no real antipathy. This changes when he falls for Claudia, a Jewish woman who points out that Gianni turned in her father to the Germans. Now filled with hate for Gianni, Adam's feelings are exacerbated when he learns that the doctor intends to marry his mother; Adam is certain that he is after her money.

Things get worse between Adam and Gianni. Adam starts an investigation of Gianni and when he eventually confronts his future step-father, a fight occurs, resulting in Gianni's death at the hands of Adam and Claudia. They cover up the murder and serve as each other's alibi. It's the perfect crime, but Adam begins to learn things that indicate Gianni may not have been bad as he first thought. Claudia views the situation more pragmatically, but Adam can't let it go: he needs to know more about the man he helped kill. As in any good mystery, complications ensue.

Despite the exotic setting, this is a rather standard plot, a variation that dates back at least as far back as The Postman Always Rings Twice: it is the tale of lovers who are forced to cover up a crime. The pair are dogged by a detective who like Columbo is much brighter than he appears. But even if the plot is not all that original, Kanon is skilled enough to breathe new life into it, creating a novel that is suspenseful and a good read. This is not so much a whodunit as a will-they-get-away-with-it, but it will still please most mystery fans.

After World War II Venice was still beautiful. The narrator's mother, Grace Miller, had known Linda Porter, the composer's wife. Adam Miller traveled to Italy after spending time in Germany doing de-Nazification work. Bertie Howard helped Grace with furnishings. He gave parties. At one of them Adam meets Claudia Grassini, a camp survivor. Fortunately for her she had never left the country. At the time only foreigners were living well, the Italians were poor. It is difficult for Claudia to adjust to the postwar period. She is filled with hate.

Adam worries that his mother is going to marry someone, Gianni, who wants her money. Claudia claims that Gianni murdered her father. Gianni and Claudia's father had known each other at medical school. When the Germans came to a hospital where Gianni worked, he pointed out Claudia's father to them. Moving the very sick man resulted in his death. Claudia's people had lived in the ghetto until the time of Napoleon. Claudia's father had believed he would be safe from the round-ups of the Jews in the hospital. Regrettably his classmate Gianni had idenitified him. Gianni claimed he reported him because he was already dying and that he saved the life of a partisan. Later Adam speaks with someone who knows all about the partisans and is in a position to cast doubt on Gianni's story.

There is a spot of disturbance and then Adam and Claudia attend a party given by Mimi, Celia de Betancourt. An Inspector Cavallini is there, too. Subsequently Mimi's ball is given a two-page spread in the newspaper. The fact that Gianni is missing is investigated.

Kanon clearly has the ability to create a murky atmosphere laced with complex ethical issues. The contrast of the Americans' delight in the Italian scene and the abject poverty of the Italians, near starvation, causes the sensitive reader to shudder. The American narrator comes to wonder whether he has misjudged Gianni and a host of other characters in the novel. This work is the sort of ground raked over in SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron. World War II circumstances created many ambiguities of behavior.

Setting this novel in Venice immediately after World War II, Joseph Kanon creates a stimulating mystery that turns the city itself into a major character. Venice, unlike other areas of Italy, has not been damaged physically by the war, and life is returning to normal. The political atmosphere, however, remains turbulent. Aristocrats, businessmen, and politicians who cooperated with the fascists and Germans are still in power. Partisans who fought the fascists and Germans regard many of these people as traitors and want justice. The Communists are making inroads into society with their promises of reform.

Into this milieu comes Grace Miller, an American widow, and her son Adam, just released from the US Army as part of a de-Nazification team in Frankfurt. Grace is about to marry Gianni Maglione, a Venetian doctor, and Adam wonders about Gianni's past. Soon Adam meets Claudia Grassini, a young Jewish woman who survived internment in Fossoli, and they begin a passionate affair. When Claudia is introduced to Gianni at a party, however, she recognizes him immediately, telling Adam that Gianni betrayed her very sick father to security forces rounding up Jews.

Using his past army connections to get further information about Gianni, Adam investigates, but violence soon changes the focus of his energies, and the nightmare involving Adam, his family, and Claudia intensifies. Adam's extreme introspection as he helps the police investigate broadens the scope and focuses attention on important themes of crime and justice, and Claudia's vulnerability as a result of the Holocaust gives added poignancy to her similar self-examinations.

With a setting so vivid that one cannot imagine the story taking place anywhere else, the reader sees Venice shining, but beneath the surface it is a decaying city, literally sinking under its own weight. War crimes, hate crimes, crimes of passion, crimes committed for altruistic reasons, and crimes committed in self-defense all play a part in the plot. Kanon also raises questions about the punishments, if any, associated with these crimes. Are some crimes less "serious," or even justifiable, if they balance the scale of justice? Is the murder of a criminal excusable? Does justice depend on who wins? Ultimately, a chase scene through the canals of Venice, leads to a stunning conclusion, filled with twists, though whether justice is truly served remains an open question. Mary Whipple

Joseph Kanon is the best selling author of Los Alamos and The Good German. Critics have compared his writing style to le Carre, Greene, and Orwell, but I found Kanon's prose to be more provocative and accessible.

Adam Miller is weary of his work. As a U.S. Army war crimes investigator in post war Germany, he's systematically separated the truly evil Nazis from citizens who merely closed their eyes to fanaticism gone beyond their control. When his tour of duty ends in 1946, Adam visits his widowed mother in Venice. She has returned to familiar surroundings in hopes of being happy again. Venice initially appears to be untouched by the war, but destruction takes many forms. Bombed out buildings are not always the worst aftermath of war.

At first, Adam is at loose ends. Memories of death camps leave him sleepless and disoriented. He wanders the canals and alleyways in hopes the city's beauty will provide solace or at least energize his spirit. His mother is engaged to Dr. Gianni Maglione, a betrothal he suspects is for her money. Old family friend Bertie Howard practices a forced gaiety, which Adam finds improbable. A wintry Venice with its cold rains and creeping fogs depresses Adam, until he meets Claudia Grassini. Making love in secret, seedy hideaways brings delight at first, a fleeting comfort as awful truths unravel. Wherever Adam turns, nothing is as it appears to be.

People do things to survive they wouldn't consider under normal circumstances. They bend, ignore, pretend. And no one has perfected the art of surviving better than those who live in Venice. Adam suspects Dr. Maglione may be more than a fortune hunter. He may be a Nazi sympathizer, or worse. And Claudia has her own secrets to protect. One unexpected act of violence smothers passion until remaining lovers becomes nothing more than an airtight alibi for Claudia and Adam.

Kanon's writing style is personable and seductive. His characters are real and human, fully developed. Venice becomes a living entity and the winter weather a chilling accomplice to tragedy because Joseph Kanon is a skillful wordsmith. Established fans will enthusiastically embrace Alibi. Readers not familiar with Kanon's work should be converted rapidly to devotees.

On about page 200, this novel is suddenly full of very, very interesting possibilities, none of which Joseph Kanon decided to explore. For the man who wrote such sublimely atmospheric books as "The Good German" and "Los Alamos," "Alibi" is a colorless dud.

The choice of location and period are intriguing--Venice immediately following WWII. Unlike so much of Italy, Venice was physically untouched by the war and so retains its beauty as if nothing had ever happened. But of course, a great deal did happen as Adam Miller discovers when he meets Claudia Grassini, a Jewish survivor of the war. Adam's widowed mother has moved to Venice where she has rekindled a relationship with Gianni Maglione, a pre-war suitor. Claudia tells Adam that Maglione is a former Nazi sympathizer, which he accepts.

How much more interesting it would have been if Adam had been wrong about Maglione! But he isn't, and between the uninteresting characters and spongy plot, "Alibi" bobs briefly before sinking into a canal.

If you haven't read Kanon's earlier period thrillers, go get them. For those of us who were looking forward to his next book, we just have to keep waiting.

Venice shortly after World War II; a place where people from all over congregate trying to recreate the carefree pre-war ambience that prevailed in this beautiful city. There's a cloud, however, over Venice: a remnant of the possible "collaboration" of some of its citizens during both the Fascist and Nazi regimes. The plot unfolds very slowly, with Venice as the constant background, and like this city, there are many unusual twists and turns in the story. You really don't know what to expect, or who to believe, until almost the end of the book. It's tautly writen, with believeable characters, and definitely holds your interest from first page to last!

Venice 1946. Adam Miller upon finishing his time in the military as a Nazi war criminal investigator goes to Venice where his mother is living as part of the well to do expatriate community. There Adam meets Claudia a mysterious and beautiful Italian Jewish woman who has survived the camps. He also learns his mother has become engaged to Gianni, a respected Venetian doctor from a highly regarded Venetian family. Adam believes Gianni is a fortune hunter. Claudia believes he is a war criminal responsible for the death of her father. Is one or both of them correct? After Gianni is murdered moral questions lead the reader through the wartime labyrinth of deceit and betrayal behind the beautiful facades of Venice. The first half of the novel is taut and compelling. Venice immediately following the war is a fascinating setting. But after the murder takes place the novel stalls and disintegrates into a muddle quite difficult to follow.

Another excellent choice from Joseph Kanon. Wonderful descriptions of Venice married to a plot which becomes more and more complex as the novel unfolds. I thought it began a little sluggishly but that only makes the rest of the book more interesting and exciting. My third book by this author, preceded by "Istanbul Passage" and "Los Alamos" but not in that order.

"After the war, my mother took a house in Venice." Kanon's book starts with a sentence as succinct and assured as Karen Blixen's "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.' We're in the hands of a master storyteller, in both cases.

Kanon's book transcends the novel-of-intrigue genre with which he's been associated. It's impossible to summarize the plot of Alibi without spoiling it. But if you can imagine a Crime and Punishment in which Petrovich, the implacable investigator, is none other than Raskolnikov himself, the perpetrator of the crime - then you'll have some sense of the darkening territory into which Kanon takes us.

Remarkably, this book proceeds largely by dialogue. But what dialogue! Kanon's ear is beautifully tuned to the speech of smart people, talk charged with feeling and intelligence. Adam Miller's discovery of the limits of his moral intuition is a chilling trip down a narrowing tunnel. But the reader's pleasure in the conversational exchanges, and in the subtle swerves in Adam's perception of reality, makes the novel glitter through the darkness.

Looming behind everything is that other ambiguous character, Venice itself, "La Serenissima", her eternal and corrupt beauty luminously evoked by Kanon.

There's a boat chase, in the end. But that's not what makes this book a thriller.

One would expect a former "book publishing executive" to have the editorial skill himself, or the ability to command it from someone else, to avoid the mistakes that permeate the text: incorrect forms of Italian words; inconsistent italicizing of Italian words and phrases; mistakes in punctuation; bottled mineral water in 1945 (and if it wasn't bottled--it's just "poured" by a waiter--how did the character know it was mineral water?).

Worse, however (by far), is the unlikable and unbelievable cast. The lovers behave with a startling lack of affection. Their love is mentioned occasionally (it seems to come and go), but their conversations and the way they treat each other--especially the way she treats him--conveys distrust, disinterest, even dislike. The hero is disdainful of his mother, no reason given. Of the other characters, both villains and good guys, only one, in the background for most of the book, is the least bit interesting.

This was my first Joseph Kanon novel; it didn't inspire me to read earlier ones.

I have really enjoyed Kanon's other novels, but this one just dragged on and on. The character building was good and as usual the history aspect of his novels was very interesting, after the war in Venice, the things people do to survive, but this story just dragged along. I agree with the other reviewer, I just wanted it to end so I could move on to something more interesting, like a Donna Leon novel.

According to the book jacket (so I'm giving nothing away), post-war Venice is mysterious and then there is a murder. Well, the book is wonderfully subtle and rich, and then there is a murder that is so rediculously implausible that, one-third of the way through the book, I simply stopped reading it. If the author can make characters do ANYTHING, then the idea of "character" is lost, then you may as well have aliens as the ultimate source of the problem.

The story centers on Venice just after World War 2. The description of the politics of the era was quite interesting. I found the authors' writing style very enjoyable and quite descriptive. On the down side, the story can have you feeling anxious and apprehensive at times. In addition, you might just feel that the author should have wrapped it up and ended it sooner.