Through a Glass, Darkly

Through a Glass Darkly (2006) Donna Leon

I actually started this weeks ago, put it back down, and then took a long time to get back to it.

Commissario Brunetti is asked, as a favor, to go out with Vianello, to help bail out an environmental activist (and friend of Vianello) who was arrested during protests. Things take a strange turn from there, when the man’s father-in-law shows up, yelling threats and imprecations at the no longer arrested man.

It seems like things will end there, but they don’t. And then, halfway through the book, there’s a murder.

Perhaps that’s why it took me so long to get through this book–it really doesn’t pick up until the second half of the book, when the murder finally happens.

Despite that, there were still many things I liked about the story, including the peeks at Venice.

He saw some people he recognized, but it was in a Venetian way of recognizing them, from walking past them on the street over the course of years, perhaps decades, without ever learning who they were or what they did.

Oddly, I’m familiar with that feeling. Over the years, I’ve seen many people in the halls at work, to the point that I recognize them, but don’t necessarily know their names. It’s an odd kind of knowing.

It’s not a bad story–not at all–but it’s also not one of my favorite stories.
Rating: 6.5/10

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