The Girl of His Dreams

The Girl of His Dreams (2008) Donna Leon

This has all of the elements I’ve come to expect of a Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery–death, intrigue, good food, and corrupt Italian politics.

This is not to say she presents all Italians as corrupt, after all we have Brunetti and Vianello on the side of the “good guys” working as best they can within a corrupt system. Corruption is more a way of life in Venice than an evil, nevertheless, corruption can lead to evil, and it is this evil that Brunetti seeks to stop.

The story starts with the death of Brunetti’s mother. No, not through murder, just an ordinary death–one that has been expected for quite awhile now. The priest who performed the graveside service–a friend of Brunetti’s brother–comes to Brunetti asking him to investigate a man who may be swindling Venetian parishioners. Because of his past, and his feelings about religion, Brunetti is actually more suspicious of the priest making the request than of the minister he is asked to investigate.

The heart of the story, however, is the mystery surrounding a the body of a young girl pulled from the river. Brunetti and Vianello are disturbed when no one comes forth to claim the body–the girl was entirely too young for someone not to miss her.

Both Paola and food play a part in this book, but either I’ve read too many Andrea Camilleri books in the past year, or he didn’t talk about food nearly as much as he has previously.

I hadn’t love the past several books in this series, but this book marks are return to the writing of some of the earlier book. As with most of this series, you should easily be able to read The Girl of His Dreams without having read any of the previous books in the series.
Rating: 8/10

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