Customer Reviews

A Venetian Reckoning

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book is also available in various formats as "Death and Judgement". Unfortunately, this occurs with a few of her books (e.g., Quietly in Their Sleep = Death of Faith), I'm guessing because they're published separately in the UK and the US.

Anyway, I did enjoy this book, but the topic is an intense one, and is one that challenges the reader to think - and feel. If you're just looking for "casual" mystery, you'll need to look elsewhere.

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. Who's fault the error? Books by Donna Leon with two names.
Dressed for Death and The Anonymous Venetian, Quietly in their Sleep and The death of Faith, Death and Judgement and A Venetian Reckoning.

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 brink of, or in the aftermath of, a messy and painful divorce). He eats well and drinks well, and behaves well, professionally and resourcefully - but (thank goodness) is not perfect. But he's definitely one of the Good Guys. He has a good working relationship with those of his colleagues who are as upright as he is, and these parts of the book are the most compelling.

The plot has been done to death in the other reviews so I won't bang on about it here.

I found the book completely believable (so many books of this kind don't ring true), and as such it drew me in right from the start. It is set in an interesting area of the world, and the politics of that place are very much in the forefront. The author clearly has things to say, and she says them without being too preachy about it.

I read a fair amount of this book in a dentist's waiting room and forgot where I was at one point. That's how good it is.

You don't need to read any of the others in this series to enjoy this one. It is completely self-contained.

The ending disappointed me, but then I suppose it was meant to. I wanted it to end well - but it didn't. So it's completely unfair of me on that score to give it 4 out of 5. Whatever, I certainly want to read more of these. I enjoyed it very much indeed.

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 complicated plot, Leon produces a winner.

The book starts with two seemingly unrelated events. The first is a truck crash in the Dolomites. The truck is full of young women from Eastern Europe, and no one can figure out who they are, where they were going, and what they were going to do when they got there. The other is the brutal murder of a prominent Venetian businessman on a train coming into Venice.

As Commissario Brunetti investigates, the two events start to intertwine. And an evil far greater than what we normally see in a Brunetti novel envelops almost everyone before it is finally confronted. There's a particularly poignant scene where it touches Brunetti's family. Leon makes the scene both believable and touching at the same time.

The review from The Independent refers to the book's "...murky but believable plot." I'd characterize the plot as more complicated than normal for Leon. The plot in A Noble Radiance is sadly enough murky, but not in this fine novel, one of the best in a compelling series.

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 her books.

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. This time the theme is trafficking, and it is very powerfully developed.

This time around Commisario Guido Brunetti's 14 year old daughter tries to help him out, with sad repercussions.

Once again rich and respected pillars of society are involved in very sleazy activities, in this case trafficking for prostitution and snuff films from Bosnia. Once again there is very little justice in Brunetti's world. But Donna Leon skillfully introduces the reader to horrible injustices that continue.

We also meet one of Signorina Elettra's hacker friends, although how they do what they do remains veiled in mystery.

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