Gut für ein Nickerchen: Na gut, ich habe nun nach längerer Pause wieder einen Leon Krimi gelesen. Nach dem neunten Fall hatte ich eigentlich keine rechte Lust mehr, weil es immer die gleiche Leier war. Nun war ich aber auf einmal wieder bereit, den nächsten Krimi zu lesen, warum weiß ich auch nicht. In diesem elften Fall geht es um den Mord an einer jungen Studentin. Auf den ersten Blick scheint es sich um Machenschafen aus dem Kunstbereich während des 2. Weltkrieges zu handeln. Aber ganz am Ende des Buches – welche Seite eigentlich? na egal, kommt raus, was das eigentliche Mordmotiv war. Interessant war der Einblick in die italienische Geschichte am Ende des Weltkrieges, da haben die Leute die auswandern wollten, ihre Kunstwerke verscheuert und dies teilweise unter Druck machen müssen Waren das nun Reiche oder Aristokraten oder was? Oder einfach nur Leute, die die Möglichkeit hatten, durch Verkauf von Kunstwerken abzuhauen? Nein nein, kann man so nicht sagen, das war ja nur der Anfang. Das ist jetzt schwierig, denn man schaut nicht immer genau durch, wie das so gelaufen ist, weil der Commissario unglaublich viel Zeit beim Mittagessen verbringt und sich nachher auch noch aufs Ohr legt. Kein Wunder, dass man dann selbst ein bisschen müde wird. Außerdem sind die Nachforschungen sehr kompliziert, weil alles schon so lange her ist und man an keine Infos kommt. Klasse war wie immer die Darstellung der perfekten Brunetti Ehe, gerade weil Paolo diesmal nicht so zickig ist und besser kocht als sonst. Erst am Ende stellt sich übrigens heraus, dass das Mordmotiv nichts mit Kunst und Krieg zu tun hat sondern mit was ganz anderem. Aber mit was, sag ich jetzt nicht, sonst braucht man das Buch ja gar nicht zu lesen. Alles in allem war es ein guter Krimi. Ehrlich.
Ludwig Witzani in Zusammenarbeit mit matka/hagen

Very good - I have this as an audio book

11th in the Commissario Brunetti series set in Venice, Italy.

A young woman, one of Paola’s students, approaches Paola after class with an odd question: since Paola’s husband is a policeman, the student wants to know if there is any legal process by which a person who has already died can be declared innocent of a crime for which he was convicted and sentenced. Paola dutifully asks Guido; he, of course, can not answer so vague a question. Claudia, the young student, visits Brunetti at the Questura and gives him more details, enough so that Brunetti is intrigued, and begins privately inquiring about Claudia’s grandfather; Brunetti discovers that the grandfather was an antiquarian who is believed to have acquired priceless art treasures during the war from desperate people, mostly Jews, who sold them for a pittance in order to escape Europe. Before Brunetti can learn much more, Claudia is found murdered.

Leon almost always includes as an integral part of her plots some social issue, which she uses extremely well as a device to give added interest to the story and to illuminate a societal condition. The disappearance of art collections, both into the hands of the Nazis and into private ones as well, is a phenomenon that has reverberations to this day, as heirs of the original owners try to recover art works that were either stolen or coerced from their relatives during World War II. In addition, Leon gives glimpses, through Brunetti’s and Paola’s family histories, of some of the horrors of the Italian participation in World War II and the current national amnesia on the subject. It’s an absorbing matrix for the plot.

By this time, Leon’s fans are well acquainted with her recurring characters, who are the strongest elements of the books. Particularly well done is Brunetti’s family--Paola and his teen-age children, Raffi and Chiara. There is a particularly hilarious scene at the dinner table when the kids make the mistake of asking for cell phones. Vianello has finally received his promotion to Inspector, and Brunetti’s father-in-law, Count Falier, has another of his trade mark appearances.

The plot is very good and the writing is strong. It does take a little time to get the story going, but after that it’s absorbing if not a page-turner. “Justice” is served Italian style at the end; there is no such thing as a clean resolution in modern Venice.

While the book is not among Leon’s best installments in the series, it is still well worth reading if only for the history. Highly recommended. ( )

The same formula as the other books about commissario Brunetti. But it works. ( )

The plot of Wilful Behaviour, the 11th Brunetti mystery, with its twists and turns, and its slowly evolving progression from senseless crime to convoluted conspiracy, is as good as crime fiction gets. But it’s the character of Commissario Brunetti – fallible, thoughtful, at times indecisive and often wrong – that makes the novel, like the others in the series, stand out from the crowd. And that, together with the unusual and unusually evocative setting of Venice, makes Leon a must read for the casual reader and the crime fiction aficionado alike. Don’t get me wrong, this is not great literature. But is it a great mystery and a thoroughly enjoyable and easy read. ( )