Uniform Justice

I'm reading these books in order as much as possible, and this is the most depressing of the series so far. There is no justice whatsoever and no closure or safety for the victimized family. Moro has lost not just his son, but nearly everything/everyone else that he values as well, and although the murderer is known, any attempt to proceed with a case against him will be well defended with a plausible smear campaign against the victim. Worse, the murderer is 18 and completely unrepentant, even smug, and his accomplices are 17. One shudders to think of their future careers. The older generation who began the victimization of the Moro family are also free to continue their careers of milking public funds and supplying shoddy overpriced show more supplies to the military. No redemption is to be found. show less

Somehow I bypassed this one on my March through the corruption of Venice. It is very good at showing how good people who will not compromise are defeated by those who are interested in the advantages of crime. I don't know how Guido continues, except what else would he do that would not compromise him in turn? A fine and sad mystery.

When we return to the Venetian world of Commissario Guido Brunetti he has found himself mired in the apparent suicide of a military cadet found hanging in a dormitory shower. It should be an open and shut case, but there is something about the death that doesn't sit right with Brunetti. Moro's father resigned from Parliament after Mrs. Moro was shot in an apparent hunting accident. Now Mr. Noro's son is dead. Is this retribution for his meddling in a corrupt investigation? As usual, Brunetti"s boss, Vice-Questore Patta, is eager to move on. Looks like a suicide, smells like a suicide, so it is a suicide. Hog-tied by political play, Patta would rather Brunetti poke his nose elsewhere. Brunetti is forced to bend the rules in order to show more solve the mystery.
Aside from the intriguing character of Guido Brunetti, Leon always illustrates Venice in a way that is mouth-watering and fills this reader with the yearning to pack her bags. show less

To be brutally honest: as a mystery novel, this is sub-par. It flounders around for almost two hundred pages where nothing much happens to advance the plot. As a glimpse into the mindset of Venetians, it was excellent. This is no gleaming Disney fantasy of sunken palazzos and romantic singing gondoliers - workaday Venice is a cold, gray, cynical place.

Brunetti is struggling to do an honest job as a police investigator despite incompetence and corruption. His world is dominated by a public distrustful of the government, divided by classism, jaded by endless greed and collusion, and surprisingly, with a social stigma toward people with disabilities.

No doubt these books aren’t very popular with American readers – there is no Scooby show more Doo moment at the end where everything is tied up in a neat little bow. More time is spent on socio-political dissatisfaction than the mystery - however, as a lover of Italy, I look forward to reading more by this author. show less

Military cult, privileged entitlement, secrets, lies, Italy/Venice, politics/corruption.
The writing is good and the wake-up call is alarming but applicable to any country. An uncomfortable but good read.
The audio is narrated very well by voice actor David Colacci.

Venice’s Commissario Brunetti and his team are called to the scene of an apparent suicide at a military academy. Brunetti has enough doubts about the death that he is able to maneuver his boss, Vice-Questore Patta, into making sure that all the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed. It seems the young man’s father had been a rare honest politician who had made many enemies with an investigative report. Might his son have been killed to punish the father?

This book is one of my least favorite in the series thus far. There was little in this book to relieve the bleakness of a family’s grief over the death of a son and Brunetti’s quixotic effort to bring a murderer to justice. The return of the familiar voice of David Colacci was the show more only bright spot in my listening experience. show less

Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti has been compared to Camilleri's Commissario Montalbano so many times that I felt I had to at least sample one of the titles in her series, and I'm glad I did. In Uniform Justice Brunetti is a world-weary detective investigating an apparent suicide at a cadet school run on military lines on the Venetian island of Giudecca. I was intrigued immediately, as I remember seeing the island from the windows of our overnight hotel opposite, especially when it was blotted out by a passing cruise ship.

World-weary detectives are two-a-penny in crime fiction, especially when they are saddled with unsympathetic superiors as Brunetti is, and Venice is such an obvious setting that we could be forgiven for thinking that show more this is bound to be a run-of-the-mill mystery. Well, we would be wrong. This is very much a character-driven novel, especially where the Commissario and his long-suffering but forbearing wife are concerned, that you can't help feeling that at times the investigation plays second fiddle to their relationship. Almost as interesting an individual is Signorina Elettra, Brunetti's ... well, what to call her? Secretary? Backroom staff? Dogsbody?

Uniform Justice concerns a crime which has ramifications in the worlds of the military and in political corruption, a heady and dangerous brew which Brunetti has to beware of drinking too much of. His liberal conscience is forced to consider compromises as he struggles towards the truth of what happened in a cadet school as staff, students and victim's parents throw up a wall of silence. We can see the inevitable coming, and it is a weight on the soul of the sensitive investigator.

Reviews by Brunetti aficionados suggest this novel is not one of the best of the series, but I still found it haunting, thought-provoking, beautiful and well-written, and streets ahead of (or in a Venetian context, canals apart from) some mysteries I have recently read.

http://calmgrove.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/giudecca/ show less