Death and Judgment

Death and Judgment (1995) Donna Leon

The fourth book in the Commisario Brunetti series opens with a truck smuggling prostitutes crashing, and killing the driver and all the women in back. We then see the death of Avvocato Carlo Trevisan.

his own office, specializing in corporate and international law. Italy is a country in which many laws are passed one day, only to be repealed the next. Nor is it strange that, in a country where the point of even the simplest newspaper story is often impossible to decipher, there sometimes exists a measure of confusion as to the exact meaning of the law. The resulting fluidity of interpretation creates a climate most propitious to lawyers, who claim the ability to understand the law. Among these, then, Avvocato Carlo Trevisan.

Because this is a mystery, we know these things are going to somehow be related, but we don’t know how.

A word of warning–this is another depressing story, where we again see how the rich and powerful are able to commit crimes with near impunity.

Or those who are smart enough to skirt the edge.

Brunetti had more than once reflected upon the strangeness of the fact that a woman with Signorina Elettra’s natural inclination toward the duplicitous should have chosen to work for the police.

One of the more surprising (and distressing) things that happens in this story is that Chiara is involves herself in the investigation, when she discovers that she knows the daughter of the murdered man. This (unsurprisingly) causes tension between Brunetti and Paola.

“I’m not sure it’s all that much larger an issue, but I think if I were to speak slightingly of you, it would be wrong.”
“You always speak slightingly of me,” Brunetti said, forcing himself to smile.
“No, Guido, I speak slightingly to you. That’s different. I would never say any of those things about you.”
“Because that’s dishonorable?”
“Precisely,” she said, smiling. “But it’s not dishonorable to say them to me?”
“Of course not, especially if they’re true.”

Not that I disagree with her, but it’s an interesting distinction.

It’s also amusing to see the state-of-the art technology from that time.

“I’ve had a modem installed on the Vice-Questore’s phone,” she said, pointing to a metal box that sat on the desk a few centimeters from the phone. Wires, Brunetti saw, led from the box to her computer.

And this we are truly introduced to what Signorina Elettra can do.

But, as I said, be warned that this is another book with a distressing ending. It’s good and realistic, but it’s also pretty miserable.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Grove Press

• Browse the archives:
  
• Acqua Alta » »
• « « Raven Cursed Audio Edition