Give Unto Others (A Commissario Brunetti Mystery)

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But otherwise this is both more of the same (the Falieris, as usual, know everyone) with Brunetti's little team of Elettra, Vianello and Claudia rallying round to do an off-the-books investigation, and not enough of the ingredients we have come to love. Find a comfortable chair, pour a goblet of Italian wine, maintain social distancing at all times and settle back for several hours of living inside Guido Brunetti’s head. The team will split up to tackle different parts of the story, from people to financial and building records, and then reconvene before producing answers to Elisabetta’s concerns. Griffoni has played an increasing part in these tales of late and I think she offers an interesting counterbalance to the Venetian’s rather staid approach. The sophisticated but still moral Brunetti, with his love of food and his loving family, proves a worthy custodian of timeless values and verities.

Is this what's happened here, or does it relate to what Elisabetta Foscarini has told Brunetti and Griffoni? It’s a long time since I read a Donna Leon, whose Inspecttor Brunetti books seemed to get darker and darker as they dealt with horrific crimes like people trafficking, child sex abuse and making snuff movies.It looks at how far we are willing to go to retain control on those in our lives and how far we are willing to push the ethical work boundaries to help those we believe we may owe in some small way. The book is steeped in a gray, murky atmosphere as Leon describes the pandemic-related devastation of Venice’s tourist-dependent economy—a devastation that mirrors Brunetti’s inner turmoil as he tries to determine where his loyalty lies in the increasingly disturbing—and puzzling—investigation. They are written in English and translated into many foreign languages, although not, by her request, into Italian. However, when his friend's daughter's place of work is vandalized, Brunetti asks his own favors--that his colleagues Claudia Griffoni, Lorenzo Vianello, and Signorina Elettra Zorzi assist his private investigation, which soon enough turns official as they uncover the dark and Janus-faced nature of a venerable Italian institution. In this volume, as in all the other volumes in this excellent series, I learned something more about Venetian culture and what it is to live in Venice.

Get told what seems a simple event, and soon it's expanding out of control; understand the basic facts, until a new variant appears. Six chapters and 50 pages and the first situation is not set up what with everyone pausing to look out the window with their fingers to their throats!

On the bright side, Leon does give this one far more satisfying finish than some of the other books in the series. Feeling that he owes loyalty to Elisabetta's mother, who had been kind to him, he agrees to help and that there will be no police records kept.