About Face (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery) - Hardcover

Leon, Donna

3.86

7,217 ratings by Goodreads

9781410417152: About Face (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1410417158 ISBN 13: 9781410417152

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2009

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Through the warm-hearted, perceptive, and principled Commissario Guido Brunetti, Donna Leon has brought us Venice in all its aspects. Now Leon returns to one of her signature subjects: the environment, which has reached a crisis in Italy. In Venice, with the polluted waters of the canals, the issue is significant. For Brunetti, it becomes so when an investigator from the Carabiniere, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage, asks for a favor. (Bestseller)

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Review:

Does the idea of a trip to Italy appeal to you? Do you want something a little less anodyne than strolling in the Mediterranean sun and consuming too much pasta and vino? Do you hanker, perhaps, to experience a touch of the corruption that most Italians wryly admit is endemic to much to their country’s superstructure? The American crime writer Donna Leon, then, is the perfect travel agent for you. She has given readers metaphorical passports to her adopted country for quite some time now, and her Commissario Brunetti novels are one of the glories of the current crime fiction scene. In her new book, About Face, a police associate of Brunetti, Guarino, leads the Commissario into a dangerous imbroglio: Mafia influence over businesses in the Marghera district is growing ever stronger, and when the MD of a trucking firm is killed in his offices, Brunetti's colleague concludes that the murder is tied into to the clandestine transportation of refuse. But things are complicated when Brunetti observes that Guarino is behaving in a very strange, atypical fashion – and the resourceful copper has multiple mysteries on his hands.

In the Brunetti universe, insidious double-dealing spreads its tendrils into every aspect of Italian society, but there is always a glimmer of hope, usually represented by Donna Leon’s intelligent and tenacious copper. Commissario Guido Brunetti is the man to root out the evils of his often benighted society. About Face is not, perhaps, Leon at her considerable best – the customary voltage is more muted -- but there’s more then enough Brunetti magic here to keep admirers happy and sated. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"[A] brilliant series" (Seven, Sunday Telegraph)

"Super sleuth Brunetti again patrols Venice's dark canal ways in this Italian crimefest. Once again, Brunetti proves he's more than a match for the local mob" (Mirror)

"The very first sentences of About Face showcase Donna Leon's elegant, effortless style ... another great Brunetti outing ... The details of home-cooked meals and family arguments, alongside a never-ending flow of crime, add depth to Leon's stories and are what makes her characters so believable and, in turn, her books so readable" (The Independent)

"A thoroughly enjoyable and atmospheric read" (Waterstones Books Quarterly)

"The Brunetti series is dependably enjoyable ... There are fine scenes of sustained dialogue, notably an exchange between Brunetti and the Count, his father-in-law, over a pair of portraits, that deserves to be called Jamesian" (TLS)

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