Customer Reviews

Through a Glass, Darkly (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Donna Leon continues her streak of delightful Guido Brunetti novels -- this one set mostly in the glass factories of Murano. She combines fascinating details of the fabled Venetian glass factories with well-developed characters and vivid geography to cook up a tale of intrigue and complexity. I think her characters here are more nuanced than in her other books, which is not a criticism of those other books. Fortunately, Donna Leon seems to be avoiding the trap of other popular authors who, after a few successes, seem to go into a slump. Leon just gets better and better with her irresistible tales of Venice.

Since I started reading this series, I've been waiting with much interest for a mystery based on artistic glass making on Murano. Venice is well known for its glass, even if many pieces are now made in Asia and only sold in Venice or on Murano.

I remember like it was yesterday visiting Venice for the first time and being told that a glass maker would send a boat to take me to Murano so I could look over the glass. I liked riding around in the fast boats so this was an easy deal.

We headed out with a great flourish. Once there, we were treated like royalty and watched an artisan making objets d'art from molten glass. Inside the store, we were assured that many good values were available. I was especially impressed by the sculptures based on Picasso's style.

We bought a few items and were sent back by vaporetto. I guess we didn't spend enough to get a fast ride back. But it was fun!

Donna Leon portrays a darker view of Murano despite setting her story on leisurely spring days when everyone wants to play hooky from work. As the book opens, we find that an engineer concerned about the environment has married the daughter of a Murano glass maker who has a great desire to harm his son-in-law rather than let him near the family business. To help out the engineer, Marco Ribetti, who is a friend of Vianello, and Ribetti's wife, Commissario Guido Brunetti does a little informal investigating to see if there is a chance of real danger to Ribetti.

In the process of learning more about the angry father-in-law, Brunetti meets a very upset night watchman who has been made crazy from grief due to the slow development of his twin daughter. Everything seems fine until the night watchman turns up dead . . . having been roasted overnight next to a raging glass furnace he was supposed to tend.

Everyone is satisfied it's an accident, except Brunetti, who investigates on his own.

For those who like to find an intriguing murder in the first chapter and a steady progress towards finding out who did it, Through a Glass Darkly will be frustrating. This book is more about being a Venetian than it is a murder mystery.

If you've been reading this series for sometime, you know that Venetians are very fond of money and distrustful of their government. They even speak a dialect of their own with one another rather than deign to speak Italian.

Donna Leon wants to make the point that even if you are surrounded by corruption and incompetence, there are some forms of corruption and incompetence that are more desirable than others. She is probing the gray areas that are mostly black. I thought it was pretty well done if you have read at least five of the earlier novels in the series.

But what made the book come up above average for me was one of her best endings. I won't say more but be sure to stick with the book so you have a chance to see how she resolves this story.

If you want a straight murder mystery, I suggest you pick another book.

When all other authors let you down, Donna Leon can usually be counted on to deliver an engaging balance of taut mystery and companionable personal life featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, his brainy, acerbic and loving wife, Paola, and his college-age children, Chiara and Raffi. At work, the doughty Vianello and Signorina Elettra still save Brunetti's proscuitto if Paola doesn't. They're all lovable and it's springtime in Venice, so what's not to like?

Sadly, what's not to like is the lack of life in the story. The obligatory murder involves a night watchman who is convinced that the glass makers on Murano, the island in the Venetian lagoon famous for its glass-making, are posioning the environment. But social (or environmental) reform doesn't quite fit Brunetti or his brilliant wife, Paola. Even the kids (Chiara and Raffi) do a walk-about. Brunetti tags along with Leon's story line, but his heart just isn't in it and unlike springtime in Venice, the story doesn't bloom.

You will learn a great deal about Venetian glass-making and there is a murder to be solved, but the usually engaging Brunetti and his cohorts, sadly, fail to engage the reader this time around.

I'm sorry for the title of my review as I've been a loyal and avid reader of the Brunetti mysteries for many many years. My continued reading of the books is spurred by my love - first of all - of Venice and my affection for the characters, especially Brunetti's family. The latter explanation, makes me better sympathise with followers of TV soaps. A style of storytelling which these novels are beginning to resemble.

Even as each new novel disappoints, I continue reading. But this one really let me down. I read it through quickly due to my (admitted) enjoyment and... its shortness. Sometimes I think Leon's publishers even use larger type to fatten-up these occasionally short novels. But does size matter? Of course not.

So to quality: Competently and fluidly written as always, but lacking the poetry and grit of say, Michael Dibdin's 'Dead Lagoon'. As in a soap, we meet all the usual characters that we love, and Brunetti visits all the usual places - the Bar on the Ponte Dei Greci for example. But it's all become so formulaic. Funnily enough, despite the formula, in this novel Brunetti's family barely gets a look-in. I do love those family lunches.

It's well researched - she hasn't coasted there - lots of work done and the facts are well condensed into enjoyably vivid descriptions. But where's the grit? - the darkness? - so rich in 'Aqua Alta' and 'The Anonymous Venetian'? Perhaps she's realised, not that the action thriller is too demanding (those climactic action scenes in 'Aqua Alta!'), but is simply inappropriate - even preposterous in Venice with its low crime rate. Is it because Leon lives there that it's all been softened in the last several novels? She can't bring herself to paint a more exciting but false picture?

Whatever the case, it makes for comfort reading but low excitement. Her next novel 'Suffer the Little Children' turned things up a notch, but was ultimately a little disappointing. I've been told by my wife that in the follow-up to that, 'The Girl of his Dreams', "very little happens" either.

That's the trouble nowadays: comfort reading, but very little happens.

Will I read more of them? Probably. I live in hope, and Michael Dibdin has sadly passed away.

I found this Brunetti mystery less murky and more straightforward than most of the others in this series, despite the title. It's fascinating to get out to Murano and learn how the Venetian glass industry works, in a remarkably low-tech, individual workshops way. Leon's concerns about the environment continue to be a theme, counterbalanced by the beauty of Venice in the Spring. So it's one of my favorite of the Brunetti books, and I highly recommend it.

Donna Leon is the author of THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY (another Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery). Having been to Venice and thinking it idyllic; I am very drawn to Leon's books because of the setting alone. However, I really enjoy reading Leon while at the pool or beach. I even like listening to David Colacci who does a great job of reading Leon's work for the recorded copies of her novels. David has even tackled Mark Helprin's A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR and Henry Adams's autobiography, THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS.

This novel is set during Spring in Venice; and much of the mystery (and of course in every mystery there is a dead body) occurs on the island of Murano which is known for its glassmaking. Leon combines detailed research on Venetian glass making with a social discourse on the effects of pollution on the Venice lagoon by the industries that border it including Marghera.

Brunetti's boss is still as insipid as he always has been (Vice Questore Patta) and is continually looking for other positions which of course he never seems to get. What I love so much about her novels is that the reader is enveloped in all things Venetian and Italian; and Leon digresses into explanations about Italian language and dialects, their food and their cultural heritage.

There is a newer character in the book (a new boat pilot named Paolo Foa) and in this novel he aids Brunetti substantially. Bonsuan the previous boat pilot had suffered the usual consequences. Leon is very capable of adding new characters to her cast as she needs them and this adds vitality to the series as she goes along.

I guess the reader will have to decipher what are the motivations for the murder; is it a cover up, is it because someone is afraid that their cover will be blown, is it because of power or money, or is it hate or despair. Every motive is examined in detail even though at first the demise appears to be the result of natural causes. If there was one drawback and I am really digging deep here; I would probably say that the author may have been a little personal about pollution and Marghera; but if you love a beautiful city like Venice and live there I can see how you may take things personally. Greenpeace did spell out the dangers of the dioxins found in the Venice lagoon because of Marghera's industries and obviously dumping so understandably Italians and Venetians have grappled with this deadly issue. But once introduced and established as a book which has an ecological twist; Leon is on her way making the afternoon and her novel as pleasant as possible.

Goodness knows I love these books. They are not Tolstoy; but at the beach something light and breezy is in order. And nothing is as light as the breeze in springtime or summer than a Leon work, Dante with an additional Italian flair.

Enjoy.

Recommended: B+

Bentley/2008
Through a Glass, Darkly (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries)

Interesting travel review of Venice, but not much of a mystery novel. Not one of Donna Leon's best. It is a murder mystery, and the mystery does not start until page 167. In "Death in a Strange Country", the victim is identified in the first sentence, and the book is exciting to read right from the beginning.

Through a Glass, Darkly (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries)

In the Commissario Guido Brunetti Series by Donna Leon, the reader develops a relationship with a thoughtful Police investigator who is sustained by his family and daily makes his way through political challenges of the Police Department and of the city of Venice. THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY is the tale of a murder at the furnace of a Glass Factory with it's own history. Brunetti gathers information about the scene and the individuals involved and, as usual, considers surface appearances and the pressing demands of the law, but searches as well for a justice beyond the law and for the real source of evil.

There are some who do not like Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti Mysteries because almost none have a "we got our man" ending. However, I find the finale of Leon's books very true to life and cannot wait to always read the next one. I feel I now know Venice well, like Brunetti, as he walks the streets and enjoys a coffee in a sidewalk Venetian cafe. Leon takes us on a journey of mystery, while still feeling like a tourist in Venice. We ride the canals with Brunetti, go to work in his office and empathize him,his boss Patta. Donna Leon makes sure we are really a part of solving each mystery. I loved this book as I have all of her work. I've read eight to date.

It was not on purpose that I purchased another book set in the facinating city of Venice. If I get any more of these books, I will have to take it as a sign to travel to Italy and spend a few weeks in Venice.

This is a murder mystery, but you are not really sure that there really is a murder at all. The death under question does not happen until over half way though the book and it is only at the very end that we get our answer as to whether it was or was not.

A very good book.