Wilful Behaviour [Paperback]

Donna Leon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2003

When one of his wife's Paola's students comes to visit him, with a strange and vague interest in investigating the possibility of a pardon for a crime committed by her grandfather many years ago, Commissario Brunetti thinks little of it. But when the girl is found dead, clearly stabbed to death, Claudia Leonardo suddenly becomes Brunetti's case, no longer Paola's student. Claudia seems to have no discernible living family - her only familial relationship is with an elderly Austrian woman, who was the lover of her grandfather, but was not herself Claudia's grandmother. Brunetti is both intrigued and stunned by the extraordinary art collection the old woman keeps in her small, unprepossessing flat, and when she in turn is found dead, the case seems to have be about to open up long buried secrets of collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews during the war, secrets few in Italy are happy to explore...

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donna Leon has lived and taught English literature in Switzerland, Iran, China, Italy and Saudi Arabia. She now lives in Venice and is the Sunday Times crime reviewer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Arrow (March 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099415186
• ISBN-13: 978-0099415183
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top-Notch Novel in This Excellent Series, February 6, 2008

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wilful Behaviour (Paperback)

To me, the best mysteries can be viewed more as novels than as puzzles to be solved. Donna Leon successfully crosses into this high ground of mystery writing with Wilful Behaviour.

In fact, such a successful novel can be read independently of the other books in a series. Wilful Behaviour also meets that test.

Do you like a book with memorable characters? Wilful Behaviour delivers both with characters that you meet in the novel and those who are described by other characters.

Do you like an intricate plot where all the pieces fit together in multiple dimensions? Wilful Behaviour once again is a good book in terms of this quality.

Do you like novels that reflect other novels, rewarding the well-read? Donna Leon delivers here as well.

Although I have always liked this series, Wilful Behaviour breaks out above the clouds in terms of being much better than the earlier offerings in the series.

In the story, Professoressa Paola Brunetti is approached by one of her better students, Claudia Leonardo, about a legal question that the student hopes Professor Brunetti's husband, Commissario Guido Brunetti, can answer. Guido resists providing any information without receiving more details. He meets Claudia and finds that her question relates back to the difficult days of World War II while Italy was part of the Axis powers. Not knowing much about those days, Guido begins to exercise his curiosity and learns about many hidden crimes from those days.

All of this becomes not so academic after Claudia is murdered, and many new questions are presented. In the process of investigating Claudia's murder, Brunetti learns about new levels of deception and depravity that some employ to achieve their selfish ends.

I have read a number of novels that relate to those days in World War II in Italy, and I found this one to be one of the very best.

Enjoy!

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dealing with Italy's Fascist Past, July 19, 2007

By 

George Wood (Sweden) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wilful Behaviour (Paperback)

All of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti books have a different theme, sometimes two. The first, "Death at La Fenice", besides introducing the series, was about the opera house of that name and the world of classical music. Later books have taken up art theft and the Mafia, illegal immigrants and blood diamonds, and moneylenders and Venetian property. "Wilful Behaviour" is about coming to terms (or not) with Facism and Italy's World War II past.

It does its job as a mystery, and keeps you wondering what the connection is among all the various elements. Like the other books, Italy seems rife with corruption and networks of friends and contacts that are (apparently) unknown here in squeaky clean Sweden. And like the other books in the series, you get to travel around Venice, by foot or water bus. Having just been there, this was fun. Especially endearing was the put-down of the tourist watering hole Harry's Bar (other books have made fun of the industry in mask and plastic gondola souvenirs).

Unlike the other books, this one actually starts with Brunetti's wife Paola, although her presence is perhaps somewhat restricted this time around.

And once again one is amazed at Brunetti's huge home-cooked lunches with the family and forced to ponder what the working hours are in Italy?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leon is one of the best, May 6, 2009

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wilful Behaviour (Paperback)

First Sentence: The explosion came at breakfast.

A student of Insp. Guido Brunetti's wife, Paola, visits him inquiring whether someone who had been convicted of a crime and is now dead could be officially cleared if shown innocent. Brunetti is not given enough information initially, but the question piques his interest. When the student, Claudia Leonardo, is murdered, the question goes from being a matter of curiosity to an investigation.

Leon is a wonderful writer. Her writing is intelligent, literary and thought provoking with cracking good dialogue. She is merciless toward the tempering of historical information, the corruption of the government and American tourists. She imbues her story with an underlying theme; in this case, honour.

Leon gives us such wonderful characters in Brunetti, about whose childhood we learn more, his wife, Paola, and the strength of their 20-year marriage, and the intriguing Signorina Elettra. One cares about her characters; not only the principals but, in this case, Claudia and her grandmother, because, I believe, of the strength of her central, Brunetti. The city of Venice is almost another character in the story.

The sense of place is so strong and, in spite of its faults, the obvious love Brunetti has for his city. The descriptions of the family meals make me want to join them. Yet, coming back to the theme of honour, Brunetti would have left his city because of a point of honour.

Under all this, is a well-plotted, fascinating, couldn't-tell-where-it-was-going story. I particularly like that the reader learn the information at the same time as Brunetti. When he is lead down the wrong path, so are we; when he begins to suspect, so do we.

I am a true fan of Ms. Leon's writing and am happy that I've many more books ahead of me.