Doctored Evidence

Doctored Evidence (2004) Donna Leon

An unpleasant old woman is found murdered–bludgeoned to death in her apartment. It seems like an open-and-shut case of the badly-treated hired help having done it–especially when the woman is found fleeing the country and is hit by a trail and killed trying to escape the police.

But all is not as it seems, and eventually someone comes forward to protest that the woman who was killed trying to leave the country was innocent.

This book starts unusually, with Lieutenant Scarpa handling the case in the beginning, and we see both the venality and corruption of Scarpa, whom Brunetti has disliked from the beginning.

Especially disturbing is Scarpa’s interaction with the witness who comes forward.

(Brunetti) realized that he found it unsatisfactory because it made Scarpa out to be less of a villain than he wanted him to be: guilty only of spite, not of conspiracy.

Luckily, Brunetti takes over the questioning of the witness–and the tone changes.

“The money I had was for a job I’d bid for and intentionally bid too high, hoping I wouldn’t get it, because it was very boring: designing packaging for a new range of light bulbs. But they gave me the job, and it turned out to be so easy I felt a little bit guilty about being paid all that money. So I guess it was easier to give away than it would have been if I’d really had to work hard for the money.”

But we of course have Paola–and Brunetti’s interactions with her–to lighten things a little.

“There’s a chapter here,” she said, pointing at the page she’d been reading, “on the Seven Deadly Sins.”
Brunetti had often thought that it was convenient that there should be one for each day of the week, but he kept that thought to himself for the moment.

Again, don’t except the clean ending of American mysteries. Things don’t even seem to be clear in the Italian mysteries I’ve read–or perhaps that is true of Italy and not just mysteries. Whatever the case, I actually like that one never knows whether the bad guy / evildoer will get their comeuppance. It’s far more realistic that everything wrapped up neatly and getting what they deserve.
Rating: 7.5/10

Published by Penguin

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