When a lorry crashes on one of the treacherous hair-pin bends in the Italian Dolomites even Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura is appalled when he learns of its terrible cargo. This is Donna Leon's fourth novel to feature Guido Brunetti.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Donna Leon has lived in Venice for many years and previously lived in Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China, where she worked as a teacher.
--This text refers to the
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More About the Author
A New Yorker of Irish/Spanish descent, Donna Leon first went to Italy in 1965, returning regularly over the next decade or so while pursuing a career as an academic in the States and then later in Iran, China and finally Saudi Arabia. Leon has received both the CWA Macallon Silver Dagger for Fiction and the German Corrine Prize for her novels featuring Commisario Guido Brunetti. She lives in Venice.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Please be aware that this book also appeared under the title of Death and Judgment. If you are trying to read the whole series, read one or the other. This is the fourth novel in the Guido Brunetti series of mysteries.
As the book opens, it's late September and a Rumanian truck carrying lumber plunges off the road and into a rock face to open up a grisly scene of crushed and broken young women amid scattered pine boards. Paolo, Guido's wife, notes the story where it remains tucked in her memory until it can provide a critical clue.
The scene shifts to late November when prominent international lawyer Carlo Trevisan is found murdered on a late night train to Venice, where Trevisan lived. Vice-Questore Patta is annoyed that he had been called to the scene when Brunetti could not be reached. The mayor of Venice quickly calls the next morning to ask for a quick and quiet solution. Since there's no evidence of robbery, Brunetti must probe into motives. Who didn't like Trevisan?
Brunetti gets a quick leg up when Signorina Elletra's sister agrees to share information about the wife and daughter of the murdered man, who had been patients. When the crime comes up for discussion at home, Brunetti's daughter, Chiara, says she knows the daughter and agrees to ask around a bit.
When Chiara turns out to be good at snooping through gossiping with friends, there's a major confrontation in the Brunetti household concerning the ethics of such undercover methods employing a minor.
The case becomes more clouded when a successful accountant is found dead of an apparent suicide, but leaving behind the telephone number of the dead attorney in his address book. When the numbers are matched up with the records of the attorney's calling, they show a disturbing pattern . . . including many international calls and to a bar where the ladies rent by the hour in a rough part of town.
Trevisan's widow and her brother seem determined to shut off the police investigation. Frustrated that he's getting nowhere, Brunetti calls in a favor for a judge who tells him more about the background of the attorney and his family. Tracking through a tangled series of clues, the case takes one more twisted turn when the widow's brother is also killed.
The case breaks open quite suddenly when an unexpected clue is dropped into Brunetti's lap. From there, it's a question of how to accomplish justice. But is there any justice other than God's? You may be reminded of the myth of Sisyphus as you contemplate the ending of this existential look at the human condition.
For those who like action and mysteries evolving in ways that they can solve just ahead of the author's revelations, A Venetian Reckoning will be a disappointment. But for those who enjoy tough ethical questions, this is a very fine book. In either case, the book's primary limitation is Ms. Leon's customary dark view of human nature. In this book, she goes about as far as you can go and still slightly separate humans from vicious, uncaring predators.
As the book opens, it's late September and a Rumanian truck carrying lumber plunges off the road and into a rock face to open up a grisly scene of crushed and broken young women amid scattered pine boards. Paolo, Guido's wife, notes the story where it remains tucked in her memory until it can provide a critical clue.
The scene shifts to late November when prominent international lawyer Carlo Trevisan is found murdered on a late night train to Venice, where Trevisan lived. Vice-Questore Patta is annoyed that he had been called to the scene when Brunetti could not be reached. The mayor of Venice quickly calls the next morning to ask for a quick and quiet solution. Since there's no evidence of robbery, Brunetti must probe into motives. Who didn't like Trevisan?
Brunetti gets a quick leg up when Signorina Elletra's sister agrees to share information about the wife and daughter of the murdered man, who had been patients. When the crime comes up for discussion at home, Brunetti's daughter, Chiara, says she knows the daughter and agrees to ask around a bit.
When Chiara turns out to be good at snooping through gossiping with friends, there's a major confrontation in the Brunetti household concerning the ethics of such undercover methods employing a minor.
The case becomes more clouded when a successful accountant is found dead of an apparent suicide, but leaving behind the telephone number of the dead attorney in his address book. When the numbers are matched up with the records of the attorney's calling, they show a disturbing pattern . . . including many international calls and to a bar where the ladies rent by the hour in a rough part of town.
Trevisan's widow and her brother seem determined to shut off the police investigation. Frustrated that he's getting nowhere, Brunetti calls in a favor for a judge who tells him more about the background of the attorney and his family. Tracking through a tangled series of clues, the case takes one more twisted turn when the widow's brother is also killed.
The case breaks open quite suddenly when an unexpected clue is dropped into Brunetti's lap. From there, it's a question of how to accomplish justice. But is there any justice other than God's? You may be reminded of the myth of Sisyphus as you contemplate the ending of this existential look at the human condition.
For those who like action and mysteries evolving in ways that they can solve just ahead of the author's revelations, A Venetian Reckoning will be a disappointment. But for those who enjoy tough ethical questions, this is a very fine book. In either case, the book's primary limitation is Ms. Leon's customary dark view of human nature. In this book, she goes about as far as you can go and still slightly separate humans from vicious, uncaring predators.
22 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you have never been to Venice, this book will take you there. If you have, it will take you back. The setting adds attractive interst to a clever fast-moving thriller that includes just the right amount of detail to grab your interest whilst not being too tedious. Written in the third person, Commissario Guido Brunetti is our engaging non-heroic Italian sleuth, making a refreshing change from many of his contemporaries. His detective skills are reminiscent of a modern-day Hercule Poirot. Lovers of Agatha Christie will enjoy the comfortingly observant style of Donna Leon. She describes people and places, and sometimes food and wine, so that they live well throughout the book. The crime that Brunetti investigates is interesting with some nice twists that hold your interest right the way to the last page. I like this book because of its beautiful balance between good and bad, it attention to detail and sense of realism. Having only just discovered this author it seems a shame that many of her books are out of print.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It is the beginning of winter and a truck, coming from Serbia, crashes on the icy road in the Dolomites. Its passengers were ten women from the Balkans. All of them died. At about the same time, Avvocato Carlo Trevisan is murdered on a train heading for Venice. He is one of the top lawyers in Venice, with a list of clients that includes most of the high and mighty in the city. And in short order two more men, both of them connected to Trevisan, are murdered.
What connects these three people? Commissario Guido Brunetti goes to work, helped by the usual cast - Sergeante Vianello, Signorina Elettra Zorzi, and the whole questura - and supported by his wife Professoressa Paola Falier.
Brunetti works meticulously by checking out phone calls and then connecting them to locations. He finds the cross references and the connection to the crashed truck: women imported for sales into prostitution. Slowly but surely Brunetti uncovers the whole network and thus finds the person who committed the murders.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
amazon fooled me
The same books with different titles are sold by Amazon. The books sold used are great values. But, because of their low cost, it's not worth the the hassle to return them. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Don
An excellent police procedural
First, let's get this straight: unlike many books of its kind, the protagonist has a happy and fruitful family life (too many of these books make you think all policemen are on the... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Matt Westwood
Really strong entry in this great series
A Venetian Reckoning is one of the strongest entries in this compelling series. Again, taking a broad social theme, in this case sexual exploitation, and weaving it into a... Read more
Published on November 7, 2009 by Jeff
Beware: A duplicate
This is the same book as "Death and Judgment"; different covers and different publisher. Donna Leon and Brunetti are wonderful, but my husband and I each liked this the least of... Read more
Published on December 28, 2008 by C. Mueser
One of Her Best
All of Donna Leon's excellent mysteries set in Venice have a theme, beyond the common one of massive corruption in Italian politics and its connections with the Mafia. Read more
Published on June 9, 2008 by George Wood
It's by Donna Leon !
It's by Donna Leon...what more is there to say...if you like Italy, if you like Venice, if you like mystery ...Donna Leon
Published on October 4, 2007 by all-my-books com
Venetian Reckoning = Death and Judgement
This book is also available in various formats as "Death and Judgement". Unfortunately, this occurs with a few of her books (e.g. Read more
Published on August 9, 2005 by James Tuttle
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