A Venetian Reckoning

Horrifically brutal, but short and very tightly plotted. Spoilery content warning for a 14yo girl losing her innocence to a surprise gang rape snuff film. I don't think she was nearly traumatized enough by the viewing but then Brunetti isn't there to narrate how she processed it after the first initial shock.

There's part of me that questions whether any of the violence and horror was necessary, but none of it felt gratuitous or titillating. It's all vile and the undertone of the writing is full of rage at the injustice and disgust with the perpetrators.

That said, I could have happily lived my whole life without reading this book.

The novel starts with a tragedy - a truck driver loses control while coming down the mountains and it turns out that the truck has a few too many passengers - trafficked women from Eastern Europe end up dead on the mountain slopes. And then everyone forgets about them until they tie into the death of an important lawyer. In some ways this is one of the darker entries in the series - human trafficking and women abuse are never an easy topic and these lie at the heart of this novel. It is also a bit more explicit than the rest of the entries. The story ties with the Yugoslavian wars (in the worst possible ways). But the novel still has Venice as its main character - but even it is subdued under the horrors which people can inflict on show more other people. show less

What an excellent book. This series keeps getting better and better. Donna Leon’s knowledge of her location and her familiarity with Italian politics shines through on every page. In this book, Commissario Brunetti finds himself butting heads, not only with his boss, the odious Vice-Questore, Guiseppe Patta, but with some very highly placed professionals like lawyers and accountants and political figures. It all starts with a truck accident on a busy highway. The aftermath of the accident reveals a seamier and darker underground than Brunetti has ever faced. One of the best things about Donna Leon’s writing is her skillful characterizations. The bad guys are usually very bad indeed, and Brunetti, his team and his family are so show more skillfully portrayed. I find myself rooting for them all. I love the imperturbable Brunetti with his common sense, his ability to see right into the heart of his adversaries, and his no-bullshit attitude. In this book he follows a long line of homicides, suicides and questionable accidents into the belly of the Venice underworld. A page-turner for sure, and one that leaves me waiting impatiently for the next installment. show less

This is a black-hearted book despite the expected pleasures of Brunetti's home life, family relationships and long, boozy lunches, not to mention the crumbling charm of largely car-free Venice. Three very professional murders of rich and influential men lead into the real, and truly awful, crime at the centre of the story. On top of that is laid the author's recurring distaste for the pervasive corruption she perceives in the upper levels of the Italian establishment. The rich and influential can get away with anything but the uncertain ethics even rub off on the good guys as can be seen in the ease with which Brunetti gets confidential information from a doctor and detailed lists of suspects' phone calls from an unofficial source. In show more this context Signorina Elettra is an inspired creation, a deus ex machina who, with her wide circle of acquaintances and her computer, comes up with answers to questions, which would normally take days of dogged police work, over her lunch break.

As with others of the series, thoroughly recommended. show less

Donna Leon’s Death and Judgement is Book #4 of her very popular Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery series.
It is a very complex, very interesting, well-crafted plot. Our main character is Commissario Guido Brunetti, He is an excellent policeman and detective and a man with a very deep, moral, ethical character. (His very moral and compassionate character must be a curse at times in Italy’s very complex culture, where it seems even the most commonplace transaction is frought with corruption and possible criminality.)
As usual, the city of Venice with its history and atmosphere is also a main character.
Death and Judgement is a very tense, difficult and dark read. It will take me a long time to get over the ending.
*****

In this fourth outing for Commissario Brunetti, he gets to investigate the death of a prominent Venetian lawyer who has been shot in the Padua to Venice train, and soon finds himself dealing with a nasty web of organised crime and political corruption.

These are entertaining novels: Leon is very good at keeping the Venetian background at the right level so that we feel almost like insiders, not tourists, and she is clever at characterising Brunetti through the way his relationship with his wife and teenage daughter works, but unfortunately she doesn't seem to be very interested in devising inventive mystery plots, possibly because she is so preoccupied with (usually well-justified) ranting about the evils of Italian society. Brunetti has show more to make do with endless variations on the three investigative tactics Leon allows him - having lunch/coffee/dinner with attractive, well-dressed women; making off-the-record phone calls to other policemen he believes not to be corrupt; and putting himself into danger late at night in shady parts of Mestre. He goes through the motions, and after 250 pages or so the author relents and tells him who did it. But, of course, Italian society being what it is (in Leon's world, at least), the real villains are rarely if ever brought to justice, and Brunetti might well ask himself why he bothers. show less

I've read 8 of the 19 (not in order) of this incredible detective series set in Venice. Everytime I read one, I want to jump on a plane and then get in a gondola and take Venice by storm. Leon really fleshes out Comissario Guido Brunetti in this one. The story is as much about his struggle to enlighten his 14 yr old daughter about the subtle but substantial difference between something that is a crime, and something that is wrong, but given the fuzziness of the Italian criminal system, not necessarily a crime. In this episode he is dealing with murder, a prostitution ring, and several other unsavory aspects of this way of life to which his daughter has been unnecessarily and brutally exposed.

It is once again, well plotted, deeply show more respectful of the characters (even the criminals) and still has enough comic relief in several of the characters to keep the dark parts from becoming unbearable. If you haven't yet discovered Donna Leon.....Get thee to the library. show less