Through a Glass, Darkly

Through a Glass, Darkly (2006) Donna Leon

This book does not open with murder–or even with much in the way of crime. It instead finds Brunetti and Vianello heading out to Mestre to help one of Vianello’s friends/acquaintances who had been arrested during environmental protests.

I haven’t said much in these reviews about food, which pervades these stories. Perhaps not quite to the degree that they do the Inspector Montalbano books, but there is a lot of food in these stories; don’t read them on an empty stomach.

But I also like the bits about the restaurants.

Before Brunetti could answer, a waiter came to the table. He had no pen or order pad, rattled off the menu and asked them what they’d like.
Navarro said the men were friends of his, which caused the waiter to recite the menu again, slowly, with comments, even with recommendations.

I have to say that I continue to enjoy the running joke of Brunetti looking like a cop.

When the coffee came, Brunetti said, ‘I’m looking for Paolo Bovo. His kid told me he was here.’
‘Paolo,’ the barman called towards a table at the back, where three men sat around a bottle of red wine, talking, ‘the cop wants to talk to you.’
Brunetti smiled and asked, ‘How come everyone always knows?’
The barman’s smile was equal in warmth to Brunetti’s, though not in the number of teeth exposed. ‘Anyone who talks as good as you do has to be a cop.’
‘A lot of people talk as well as I do,’ Brunetti said.
‘Not the ones who want to see Paolo,’ he answered.

I also appreciated this bit, because it speaks to things I know and have been told.

He looked over at the two workers, back at Assunta, and asked, ‘Masks?’
This time she shrugged but said nothing until she had led him out of the room and back into the courtyard. ‘They’re given two fresh masks every day: that’s what the law says. But it doesn’t tell me how to make them wear them.’

That is one of the truest statements about workplace safety I’ve ever read in a work of fiction I think.
Rating: 7.5/10

Published by Penguin

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