Fatal Remedies

Fatal Remedies (1999) Donna Leon

This is one of my least favorite Brunetti stories, for a very specific reason.

The story opens with Paola breaking the window of a travel agency. She does it for noble reason–she wants to make people aware of how these businesses were promoting the sex trade to third world countries.

But.

Paola isn’t stupid. She grew up in Venice, the daughter of the nobility (so to speak). She knew the affect her actions would have upon Guido’s career.

And she didn’t care, and then she acted surprised when Brunetti suffered repercussions.

It was an incredibly selfish action, wrapped in the nobility of a good deed.

That act of stupidity and selfishness all but ruins the book for me, even though I found the mystery itself quite interesting.

SPOILER (rot 13)
Naq gb nqq vawhel gb vafhyg, Cnbyn’f sngure xrrcf ure sebz gehyl fhssrevat gur pbafrdhraprf bs ure npgvbaf, ol hfvat uvf cbjre gb uhfu gur zrqvn.

Vs Cnbyn jnf tbvat gb qb fbzrguvat fb fghcvq, gura fur fubhyq unir unq gb gehyl qrny jvgu gur pbafrdhraprf. Vafgrnq, ure sngure “qrnyf jvgu vg” naq gur fhowrpg arire pbzrf hc ntnva va gur frevrf.

V ernyvmr gur frevrf vfa’g nobhg Cnbyn, ohg vg znxrf ure npgvbaf jvgubhg nal gehr pbafrdhrapr, juvpu veevgngrf gur penc bhg bs zr.
END SPOILER

Of course, there are still bits I loved, such as this exchange:

‘Accessed?’ he repeated, using the English word…

‘It’s computer speak, sir,’ she said.

‘To access?’ he asked. ‘It’s a verb now?’

‘Yes sir, I believe it is.’

‘But it didn’t used to be,’ Brunetti said, remembering when it had been a noun.

‘I think the Americans are allowed to do that to ther words, sir.’

‘Make them verbs? Or nouns? If they feel like it?’

‘Yes, sir.’

That just amuses me. As does the bit about Signorina Elettra’s flying toasters screen saver. It places the story so squarely in a specific place in time, it amuses me.

So despite the bits I quite liked about the mystery, and how the story shows how important his marriage to Paola is, Paola’s selfish actions all but ruin the book for me.
Rating: 5/10

Published by Penguin / Grove Press

 
 

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