Through a Glass, Darkly: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery: 15 (The Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries) - Softcover

Leon, Donna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080212383X ISBN 13: 9780802123831

Publisher: Black Cat, 2015

Synopsis

On a luminous spring day in Venice, Commissario Guido Brunetti and Inspector Vianello play hooky to help get Vianello's friend Marco Ribetti--an environmental activist arrested during a protest against toxic waste being dumped into the city's waters--released from prison. But on the steps of the police headquarters, they come face-to-face with Ribetti's cantankerous father-in-law, who has been overheard making threats against Ribetti. And when the body of a night watchman is at the father-in-law's glass factory next to an annotated copy of Dante's Inferno, Brunetti must find out if there is a connection between this and whoever is ruining the waters of the lagoon.

About this title

Review:

Do the following two things appeal to you? A holiday in Venice, away from the tourist traps, investigating the city's more unusual nooks and crannies? Or trying (by proxy) to solve a particularly mystifying crime case with a variety of intriguing suspects? Well, you don't need either the money the first would require or the police qualifications the latter might need, if you merely shell out the modest outlay for Donna Leon's Through a Glass Darkly, the latest in her always assured Commissario Brunetti novels.

Admirers of these books need no recommendation: they have been amazingly consistent in their development over the years, and have rarely slipped into the overfamiliar--there's no sense that Donna Leon is tired of either Brunetti or his battles with municipal and governmental corruption.

It's spring in Venice, and Commissario Brunetti and his associate Vianello undertake a task not officially sanctioned by the Questura--they will try to do what they can for Vianello’s friend Marco, an eco-activist who has been arrested after an environmental protest turns ugly. Soon after, Brunetti witnesses the almost psychotic enmity of Marco's father-in-law, who almost seems prepared to murder his relative (a fear that Marco's wife shares). The old man's glass factory on Murano, the source of the conflict between father and son-in-law, becomes the scene for a murder: in front of the furnaces which eternally burn at high temperatures, a body is found and Brunetti’s search for the killer is aided by clues found in a volume of Dante.

All of the customary Leon fingerprints are satisfyingly in place here: the sultry and immensely vivid evocation of Venice; the ever-present pall of evil and corruption that suffuses the beauty of the city, and (most pleasurably of all) the careful delineation of character in Brunetti and his associates. This is a series that has a long time to run yet.

--Barry Forshaw

Review:

"A smart and stylish, fast-paced case of intrigue and corruption, written with wit, affection and authority. . . . Impressive."--Los Angeles Times

"Atmosphere and a sense of place are crucial to any successful series, and few do it better than Donna Leon with her mysteries featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti of Venice. . . . Leon is pitch-perfect as ever."--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Masterful. . . . As Brunetti muses on crime, humanity and Dante's Inferno . . . the city's famous glass-making industry and daily life in the Venetian backstreets come gently to life."--Time Out

About this edition

• Publisher: Black Cat
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 080212383X
• ISBN 13: 9780802123831
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272