{"id":578,"date":"2008-05-26T20:39:21","date_gmt":"2008-05-27T00:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=578"},"modified":"2021-05-30T21:38:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T01:38:05","slug":"death-in-a-strange-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/578","title":{"rendered":"Death in a Strange Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Death in a Strange Country<\/a><\/em> (1993) Donna Leon<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The second Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery (how I managed to read the third book instead of the second in two different series within a week is beyond me) finds Guido awakened to come down to a canal as a body was found in the water. The stab wound that is discovered rules out an accident, and as it becomes quickly apparent that the man was not an Italian but was instead an American, things become even more confusing–and dangerous.<\/p>\n

The more time I spend reading about Commissario Guido Brunetti, the more I like him. He’s a straight man in a very crooked world–a man who sees the big things as they should be, rather than as they are. He doesn’t try to right every wrong–he knows the futility in that–but tries to right the big wrongs, the murders and deaths it is his job to solve.<\/p>\n

But what I like most is that we see Guido not just at work, but at home, talking to and thinking about his wife. Worrying about his children. Thinking about food and money and the things that we all consider every day. But most importantly, we see him enjoying the world around him. He stops to enjoy the beauty of Venice, of the everyday world around him.<\/p>\n

It is the complexities that make him such an interesting character. The complexities of the murders and crime around him are a bonus.<\/p>\n

And the mysteries are good. Like the characters, they are complex, and there are not always eat solutions or answers. (As much as I love mysteries and the resolution of story arcs, sometimes the resolution is that the problem is not and cannot be solved, and that there can be no neat and tidy ending. It is this not knowing how things are going to turn out that I like so much about these mysteries.<\/p>\n

You should easily be able to read this book without having read the first. Although each story builds Guido’s character, you should be able to appreciate the mystery and enjoy it for its strengths even without having read the previous book. But it seems to me that the more we learn about Guido through this series, the better the series will get.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death in a Strange Country (1993) Donna Leon The second Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery (how I managed to read the third book instead of the second in two different series within a week is beyond me) finds Guido awakened to come down to a canal as a body was found in the water. The stab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,8,291,42],"tags":[97,96],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-mystery","category-paper","category-police","tag-commissario-guido-brunetti","tag-donna-leon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-9k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":683,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/683","url_meta":{"origin":578,"position":0},"title":"Uniform Justice","author":"Michelle","date":"October 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Uniform Justice (2003) Donna Leon I really like Commissario Guido Brunetti. I like his sense of justice and fairness. I like his intelligence and wit. And I like his wife. In fact I think I wish I was Paola. A boy is found dead in the local military school, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Uniform-Justice-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":588,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/588","url_meta":{"origin":578,"position":1},"title":"Quietly in Their Sleep","author":"Michelle","date":"June 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Quietly in Their Sleep (1997) Donna Leon This was a rather strange story in comparison to the previous books. Brunetti is given only a vague idea that there might be something untoward happening in a nursing home--a home that is run by the same man as the home in which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Quietly-in-Their-Sleep.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12595,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12595","url_meta":{"origin":578,"position":2},"title":"Trace Elements","author":"Michelle","date":"March 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Trace Elements","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Trace-Elements-682x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5440,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5440","url_meta":{"origin":578,"position":3},"title":"Dressed for Death","author":"Michelle","date":"October 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Dressed for Death (1994) Donna Leon And now, in the third book of the Commisario Brunetti series, we finally meet Elettra, who will become just as (if not more) central to the series as Vianello. \u201cI\u2019m very pleased to meet you, Signorina Zorzi,\u201d Brunetti said. The name rang familiarly in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Dressed-for-Death-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1307,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1307","url_meta":{"origin":578,"position":4},"title":"The Girl of His Dreams","author":"Michelle","date":"August 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Girl of His Dreams (2008) Donna Leon This has all of the elements I've come to expect of a Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery--death, intrigue, good food, and corrupt Italian politics. This is not to say she presents all Italians as corrupt, after all we have Brunetti and Vianello on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Girl-of-His-Dreams.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13525,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13525","url_meta":{"origin":578,"position":5},"title":"Death at La Fenice","author":"Michelle","date":"October 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Death at la Fenice","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Death-at-La-Fenice-e1511015320566.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}