So Shall You Reap (2023) Donna Leon (Commissario Brunetti) This is the 32nd book in the Commissario Brunetti series. Like so many other characters in mysteries, Brunetti and his family have stopped aging, Chiara forever trapped as a young teen. Like the previous couple books, the mysteries are ok. The draw of this story remains […]
Give Unto Others (2022) Donna Leon (Commissario Brunetti) This is the 31st Brunetti book. It seems weird this series has been running for 30 years. Partially because at some point she stopped aging Brunetti and his family, so his eldest has been on the cusp of adulthood for more than a decade. This book is […]
Transient Desires (2021) Donna Leon (Commissario Brunetti) Two young American women were left on the dock outside the hospital–one with serious injuries. What happened? Why were they abandoned? These and other questions lead Brunetti and his fellow officer Griffoni to find out what happened to the women–and more importantly, why. This is another of the […]
Death at La Fenice (1992) Donna Leon (Commissario Brunetti) A famous conductor is found dead during the intermission of the opera he was conducting. The police are called, and so we are first introduced to Guido Brunetti, Comissario of the Venice police. What surprises me every time I re-read this is just how good it […]
Trace Elements (2020) Donna Leon (Commissario Guido Brunetti) Book 29 of the Commissario Guido Brunetti series. Brunetti and Griffoni go to a hospice because a dying woman wants to talk to them. Her husband recently was killed in a car accident, and she seems to be telling them that he was killed. Brunetti finally accepted […]
Unto Us a Son Is Given (2019) Donna Leon Brunetti’s father-in-law is worried about a friend, and asks Guido to see if his concerns are justified. ‘Gonzalo’s my best friend. We were at boarding school together.’ He looked across at Brunetti and said, unable to restrain his surprise, ‘My God, it was more than sixty […]
The Temptation of Forgiveness (2018) Donna Leon One of Paola’s co-workers comes to Brunetti because she fears her son is using drugs. Elletra seems to have gotten herself into a spot of troupe. Patta wants Brunetti to deak with issues with Scarpa. The instinct to institutional survival stilled Brunetti’s tongue. He waved his hand and […]
Earthly Remains (2017) Donna Leon The 26th Brunetti mystery sees nothing of Brunetti’s children, and very little of Paola. Although there is of course food. It seems like the corruption in Venice has finally gotten to Brunetti. In order to save Pucetti from himself, Guido pretends to fall ill, and then is unable to stop […]
The Waters of Eternal Youth (2016) Donna Leon This is the 25th book in the Guido Brunetti series, which shouldn’t surprise me, yet somehow does. Brunetti remains as astute as ever, with many sharp little comments on life. Contessa Lando-Continui had always been polite to him, at times even warm, but he had always wondered […]
Falling in Love (2015) Donna Leon And now, I have read and re-read all the published Donna Leon, Commisario Brunetti books. We return once again to the Opera and Flavia Petrelli. La Fenice is putting on Tosca, and Flavia has the lead role. Brunetti and Paola meet her after the opening night, and invite her […]
By its Cover (2014) Donna Leon At last, we reach the books I had not yet read. The 23rd book finds Brunetti called to investigate the theft of both books and pages cut from old and rare books. Old books had always filled Brunetti with nostalgia for centuries in which he had not lived. … […]
The Golden Egg (2013) Donna Leon This mystery is good, but the resolution is so awful, it makes me dislike the whole book. This, I think, sums up what I found so awful (don’t worry, not a spoiler): ‘I wonder if it’s possible that he got to the point where his life was so bad, […]
Beastly Things (2012) Donna Leon Although I had forgotten most of the mystery, the scenes of Brunetti and Vianello going into the slaughterhouse I remembered quite vividly–their horror and disgust at what they witnessed. Again, Rizzardi continues to be one of my favorite characters, even though we usually only see him once a book. ‘Miracle?’ […]
Drawing Conclusions (2010) Donna Leon And older woman is found dead in her apartment by her neighbor, and although her death is ruled a heart attack, something strikes Brunetti as wrong about the scene, and so he looks into the life of the woman, and why someone might want to do her harm. Anna Maria […]
A Question of Belief (2010) Donna Leon The 19th Commisarrio Brunetti book finds Guido and his family ready for their vacation in the mountains–and an escape to the oppressive heat and humidity of Venice. Though the heat often drove people to violence, that was not the case this year. Perhaps there was some point where […]