Blood from a Stone

Blood from a Stone (2005) Donna Leon

A young man–a vu cumpra–is assassinated on the streets a few days before Christmas. As always, Patta is up to his neck in the politics. And as always, this conflicts with Brunetti’s search for the truth and justice.

Weirdly, I’d remembered part of the mystery, which is inherently political, but I’d forgotten how much more political the story gets.

Which makes it excessively depressing.

There was a nice spot–the ex-priest Don Alvise. He was really a lovely man.

In his letter to Don Alvise…the bishop explained his motives by stating that ‘some of these people worship stones.’
…
Don Alvise wrote to his bishop, explaining that he saw no other course open to him than to renounce his vocation, for to continue to live it as he thought it should be lived was clearly to create perpetual strife with his superiors. In closing, he added, in the most respectful terms, that he would prefer the company of people who worshiped stones to that of people who had them in place of hearts.

I really did like Don Alvise.

He seemed a man who gazed in all he saw with approval and affection, who began every exchange with deep and abiding regard for the person in front of him.

That is a really hard thing to do.

Sadly, we don’t get to spend the whole story with Don Alvise, and the story as a whole is really dark and depressing. Probably because it seems so very likely.
Rating: 7/10

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