12th in the Commissario Brunetti series, set in Venice, Italy.[return][return]A young student is found hanging from the ceiling of a bathroom in the military academy of San Martino. It is an apparent suicide. To complicate matters, however, the dead boy is the son of a former politician who rose to fame in Italy for his unimpeachable honesty in investigating corruption in Venetian health services. Brunetti, put off by the hostile attitudes of both Comandante and students at the Academy and tales of arrogance and assumptions of entitlement among the students and their mostly military parents, begins his own investigation--which leads him to the belief that Young Moro did not commit suicide.[return][return]Thus begins one of Leon s darkest books. It s a classic Brunetti police procedural, which means that the plot unfolds slowly and relentlessly to a typical Leon--and Italian--denouement. The difference in this book from her others, which are unsparing in criticism of the farce of justice in the Venetian system, is that it is so stark, so devoid of hope, so grim in its portrayal of the grip the military has on Italian life.[return][return]It s an excellent installment, with Leon s usual strengths--her characters and sense of humor. She never ceases in developing her main characters--Brunetti, his wife Paola, and to a lesser extent, his children and the recurring members of the Questura, such as that incomparably brilliant computer hacker, Signorina Elettra, the prima dona of illegal entry into the computer systems of international banking and government records. She s even corrupted Vianello, to whom she s promised her own quite adequate computer system because, thanks to Vice-Questore Patta s complaint about office expenses, to save money, she s buying the most up-to-date equipment possible. Brunetti s description of her logic as Jesuitical hardly does her credit.[return][return]There s the usual comic relief in scenes between Paola and and her teenage children; Leon captures this family perfectly, and I always wind up wishing, as does Brunetti, that I had had the nerve to raise my own children in a similar manner.[return][return]This is not a pleasant story but it s a good one, and extremely well written. Highly recommended.
It's probably not entirely fair for me to judge this. I picked this book up, mistakenly thinking it was the first in the series, and the book was chock full of interactions and vague hints about past events that I obviously wasn't familiar with. Yet, I'm going to go right ahead and judge it anyway.I tend to love reading books set in places I've never been; even when a book doesn't exactly paint its setting in a great light, I always seem to walk away with the sense of wanting to explore the place for myself. So I suppose I could say the fact that this book made me *less* interested in visiting a place as historic and by-all-accounts marvelous as Venice is quite an impressive and unusual accomplishment for its author. But all I can say about the setting and the people in this book is: yuck. The whole story is just pervaded with this sense of apathy, a corrupt little universe where everyone just shrugs, knowing that's the way it is, and heck, maybe if they play the game long enough, they'll have a chance to join in and get some easy money or influence for themselves. Even the "hero" seems largely untroubled by the way the rich and powerful do whatever they like, and if it means he can't really do his job -- then oh well.The plot was as paper-thin as could be, seeming like it was more a literary device for the author to express her character's overwhelming cynicism and ennui. It seemed like the only investigative technique available to the detective was to keep going back and questioning the same people about the same things, until eventually someone was nagged into revealing The Whole Story. (Not that anyone was going to do anything about it anyway, right? After all, the system is rigged and no one really cares.)I still want to see Venice one day, horrible books notwithstanding. But just to make sure I *continue* to want to visit the city, I'll make sure to stay far away from this author's other books.
What do You think about Uniform Justice (2004)?
Uniform Justice is the 12th in the Inspector Brunetti series and was published in 2003. This is one of the darker books in the series. The story centers around the apparent suicide of a 16 yr old cadet at an exclusive military school in Venice. It is largely attended by the children of previous attendees. In this case, the cadet is the son of a prominent oncologist and former member of parliament known for his absolute honesty in a country where political corruption is a foregone conclusion. Neither of the boy's parents are willing to cooperate although both don't believe it is suicide. However, it soon becomes obvious there is much more to this case than meets the eye. It affects Brunetti deeply since he has a son the same age as well as a daughter a bit younger. As a result he feels driven to find out exactly what happened. Leon conveys the emotions of a loving father who feels the parents' pain probably more deeply than he should. However, there is still plenty of the author's signature wit, irony as well as the deep affection she has for a city in which she has lived for many years.
—Larraine
While many books can take you on adventures in new places, give you new ideas to contemplate, and introduce you to new and complex characters, there is comfort in curling up to drop in on old friends. I love a good mystery (OK, even some not-so-good ones) and a good mystery series is even better. I will not bore everyone by carrying on about every book in a series, but I will occasionally highlight the one I’ve most recently read, hoping it will inspire someone else to check it out! I just recently finished the 12th installment in Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti series. The series takes place in Venice and is one of the rare books where the location itself is a main character. In Leon’s series it is easy to become absorbed in the descriptions of Venice, the canals, the architecture, the art, the fashion, the food (which all sounds fabulous even when I’m not sure what it is!). Against this backdrop of beauty Leon writes about a corrupt city void of trust in the law, where things get done based on who you know and what you are willing to pay. Commissario Guido Brunetti is a man of honor, struggling within this system, often walking a thin line between pursuing justice and using a corrupt system he abhors in order to do so. Brunetti is surrounded by a cast of vivid characters including both trusted and devious co-workers, an inept boss, a sly and useful secretary, and a loyal, opinionated, out-spoken, and supportive wife. It is against this backdrop that these mysteries become less about who-dun-it and more about why and what to do with the answers. How can justice truly be served? Can justice be found at all?“Brunetti had no taste for this, not any longer. ‘There’s no justice here, Dottore,’ he said, frightened to realize that he meant not only for this man and his family, but for this city, and this country, and their lives.” The 22nd installment of the series will be release in March of this year, leaving me many more hours to spend curled up on the couch with Brunetti!
—Watchingthewords
Things get darker in these later novels as Brunetti grows more cynical about his society, "the men from the south," and the futility of doing good in such a world. An honest politician is scared off publishing an accurate and damning study on the military procurement system when his wife is injured in a deliberate shooting. His son attends an elite military academy in Venice and is found dead of a supposed suicide. Like a biblical tale, the sins of the fathers are extended through the next generation with the transfer of hatred and fear.
—Deborah Moulton
