Review: Quietly in Their Sleep (Commissario Brunetti, #6) by Donna Leon

Quietly in Their Sleep by Donna Leon


Commissario Guido Brunetti’s latest “case” in the 6th book in Commissario Brunetti Series by Donna Leon, starts off with a visit to his office by a young woman, who he doesn’t recognize but seems familiar to him, claiming that she suspects that several patients who had died unexpectedly and odd circumstances in the nursing home she had previously worked at. She thinks that their deaths may be related to their fortunes being left to the home and the church and not their heirs.

Without any proof of a crime being committed, Brunetti tells her that he will try to find out more about the home. But when she’s left in a coma after injured by a hit and run car, he decides to investigate and look closer to her allegations.

What he discovers is something more and worse than he had thought.

This story deals with so many issues. The Catholic church, greed, corruption, Opus Dei, the handling of priests who have been found guilty of sexual abuse of children and cover-ups.

I find the author’s views on the dynamics of religion in Italy really interesting. One of the parts in the story , where Brunetti and Paola are discussing Chiara’s school report results and the low marks she obtained for religion instructions, and her feelings about that subject….

“I raised my hand and asked if God was a spirit. And he said yes, He was. So I asked if it was right that a spirit was different from a person because it didn't have a body, wasn't material. And when he agreed, I asked how, if God was a spirit, He could be a man, if He didn't have a body or anything.” Chiara

And how much value we place on material things. Brunetti and Vianello visit one of the deceased patient’s son and heir, who is more interested in what he owns and has inherited than about his dead mother. And this quote is so true in our society….

““We buy things. We wear them or put them on our walls, or sit on them, but anyone who wants to can take them away from us. Or break them.
...
Long after he's dead, someone else will own those stupid little boxes, and then someone after him, just as someone owned them before he did. But no one ever thinks of that: objects survive us and go on living. It's stupid to believe we own them. And it's sinful for them to be so important.”

What makes this series so special are the characters and the sense of place that is Venice.

An enjoyable read.

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