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100 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Viva Brunetti!, April 30, 2008
As reader comments on Mr. Nicholas's review have already made clear, this is probably not the Donna Leon novel to start with if you're new to the series. Start at the beginning with "Death at La Fenice" and get to know Commissario Brunetti, his family, his co-workers and his beautiful, corrupt city of Venice. If you fall in love with all of them, as so many of us have come to do, then you'll probably want to read the rest in something close to chronological order if you can.
Here's the list, in order, updated in March 2011: "Death at La Fenice," "Death in a Strange Country" "Dressed for Death," "Death and Judgment," "Acqua Alta," "Quietly in Their Sleep," "A Noble Radiance, " "Fatal Remedies," "Friends in High Places," "A Sea of Troubles," "Willful Behavior," "Uniform Justice," "Doctored Evidence," "Blood from a Stone," "Through a Glass, Darkly," "Suffer the Little Children," "The Girl of His Dreams," "About Face," "A Question of Belief," and "Drawing Conclusions."
This 17th in the series is a real treat, as expected. And Leon's in top form, again as expected. The murder at the heart of it delves into the gypsy life of Venice; the secondary story deals with a priest who's trying to unmask a clergyman he suspects is a crook--clearly one of them's a bad guy, but which? And before it's all over with, the whole Brunetti family, their in-laws, the Vianellos and Signorina Elettra, will all have gotten involved.
Sidenote: Once upon a time, presumably for privacy reasons, Leon, an American who lives in Italy, would not let her novels be published in either country. Happily--starting with "Uniform Justice" in 2003--that changed, and one by one, but not in any particular order, the earlier Brunetti novels all eventually became available here..the 3rd, 4th and 6th under different titles. So if you ever come across "The Anonymous Venetian," "A Venetian Reckoning" or "The Death of Faith" please know these are not new Leons; they're just the British titles of "Dressed for Death," "Death and Judgment" and "Quietly in Their Sleep."
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a very elegant and lyrical read, May 13, 2008
Once again Donna Leon delivers another graceful and thoughtful Commissario Brunnetti installment. Leon's style of writing and the way she develops the plot my not be everyone's cup of tea, and "The Girl Of His Dreams" may not rank amongst Leon's best work, but truly, I really enjoyed the book.
When a childhood friend of Brunetti's eldest brother, a priest, Padre Antonin, approaches Brunetti about his fears that a scam may being perpetrated, Brunetti is suspect about Antonin's motives. Always suspicious about the clergy and having some not very good memories of Antonin, Brunetti is tempted to let the matter drop with only the most superficial of investigations. But Brunetti's queries reveal that Antonin may be onto something afterall. It looks as if a brand new Christian sect has opened up shop in Venice, and several of the sect members have been persuaded to donate money to the sect. Is Mutti a scam artist as Anotonin claims? Or is Antonin afraid that Mutti may prove too much competition for the Church? But before Brunetti can go further with his queries, he becomes involved in another criminal investigation, this time involving the suspicious drowning of a young gypsy child. The young girl's death haunts Brunetti and his colleagues so much that Brunetti resolves to figure out how this child died and bringing whoever was responsible to justice...
It is true that Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti novels have changed a little over the years, becoming more introspective, quieter and less complex. But the books are still compelling and make for very enjoyable reading. It is true that there is very little suspense or tension, and I can understand the disappointment that some of the previous readers have had with "The Girls of His Dreams;" but really one also reads Donna Leon for the quiet lyricism she writes, the wonderfully evocative manner in which she describes Venice in all it's various seasons and for the regional political issues she informs us about -- it's my way of keeping in touch with what's going on in Italy on a social level other than through the media. "The Girl of His Dreams" was a very quiet, elegant and lyrical read, but it may not be to every reader's taste, esp given the ending, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. As other reviewers have already mentioned, "The Girl of His Dreams" may not rank as one Leon's most stellar of offerings, but for stalwart fans, it will prove to be an enjoyable and rewarding read.
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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Local Color . . And Little Else of Interest, May 10, 2008
Before writing my review, I waited two days after reading The Girl of His Dreams to see if I liked the book any better after sleeping on it. I didn't. Sorry, Ms. Leon. This one's a clunker. Why? Of two cases, only one is interesting. And the investigation of the interesting one isn't very stimulating. This book will only appeal to those who enjoy thinking about the injustices that victims experience.
As the book opens, crime seems to have taken a holiday in Venice and Commissario Guido Brunetti has plenty of time to investigate a mysterious preacher who is looking for big donations on the behalf of a priest he barely knows. Naturally, there's no crime to pin down, but Brunetti decides to look around anyway.
Before the preacher's background and motives can be understood, Brunetti has to deal with a most unpleasant duty . . . pulling a dead girl from the water. Here's where the local color comes in. The girl is a Gypsy (the P.C. term is Rom), part of a family that steals for a living. As you can imagine, Gypsies aren't interested in telling their troubles to the police.
How will Brunetti find out what happened to the girl? That's the real mystery of this book. A lot of the leads turn out to be misleading which provides a few mild surprises.
Once again, you'll learn that the police aren't able to do very much about crime, those in the establishment who complain often have things to hide, and the poor aren't as bad as everyone else thinks. The explication of those points is, however, not very interesting compared to other books in this series.
Did I need to read this book to remain a fan of this series? Not really. You have the option to pass on this one.
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