The Golden Egg

The Golden Egg (2013) Donna Leon

I am starting, perhaps, to be disconcerted by how Brunetti and his family seem to have stopped aging. The first book was written in 1992, so twenty years have passed since that book, but time has not passed at the same rate for Brunetti. It’s most obvious with Chiara, who seems to have aged only six or seven years in the intervening time.

Donna Leon isn’t the first mystery author to have made her detective somewhat flexible in time, but I believe my preference is for characters to age over time–at least when they are written in the present and technology keeps pace with the times. It’s not a huge problem, but it’s slightly disappointing. I’d like to see Raffi and Chiara grow and mature–in fact, I’d really like to see what kind of woman Chiara becomes.

But that has nothing to do with this mystery.

Paola is disturbed by the death of a young man–a deaf mute–who “worked” at the local cleaner. No one seemed to know much about him, even his name, and so she asks Brunetti to learn what he can. And the more Brunetti learns, the stranger the story becomes, and the more disturbed Brunetti is by how a man could have grown up in Venice and yet exist no where in the system.

‘I wonder if it’s possible that he got to the point where his life was so bad, he couldn’t stand it any more?’

Brunetti thought about this and said, ‘He’d have to know it was bad, wouldn’t he?’

She turned her head to him sharply, mouth open. But before she could ask him what he meant, Brunetti saw her hear her own question and begin to consider it. Finally she said, ‘Of course. If that’s the only life he knew, then it was just that: life. Something worse would have to have happened, I suppose.’

That bit is quite chilling, considering the resolution of the mystery.

I admit that some of the mystery seems obvious to me, although that didn’t make some of the more disturbing parts both surprising and upsetting.

I enjoyed spending time with Brunetti, but I think the biggest tell about my feelings for the series come from the fact that this book was published last year, and I’ve only just now gotten around to reading it, and although the next book is on my wish list–it’s only on my wishlist, because I’m waiting for the price to drop.
Rating: 6/10

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press

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