Wilful Behaviour (Paperback)

by Donna Leon (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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...

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 Books Ltd (March 6, 2003)
• 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: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,685 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 11 in The Commissario Guido Brunetti Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

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!

25 of 31 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 (REAL NAME)

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?

71 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb installment in a wonderful series, December 16, 2005

By	R. B. Bernstein "R. B. Bernstein, Adjunct Pro... (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a superb novel on its own, and a first-rate installment in a wonderful series. I hope that it gets published here in the U.S.; I found a British edition in a used bookstore and am still marveling at my good luck. What is wonderful about the Leon/Brunetti series is that Donna Leon writes superb novels about Venice and the corruption of Italian society that also have murders and mystery; they're not mere examples of the genre, but are rather the kind of book that you can recommend to a literary snob who claims, "Oh, I never waste my time with mysteries."