Review: Beastly Things by Donna Leon

Beastly Things by Donna Leon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This still remains one of my favourite crime/thriller series.
From the 1st line..............I was hooked once again!!

A man lay still, as still as a piece of meat on a slab, as still as death itself.

Beastly Things, the 21st mystery in Donna Leon's Commisario Guido Brunetti Series starts with a body of a man stabbed to death is found floating in one of Venice's canal, whose identity is only revealed half-way through the story.

Brunetti and his side-kick, Vianello The dead man is identified as a gentle vet, whose part-time job at a slaughter house , was to certify that animals brought for slaughter were free from any disease that could be passed into the food-chain. The investigation leads them to a conspiracy of corruption and crime that is eroding the city of Venice.

“The city grew dirtier, hotels proliferated and rents increased, every available inch of sidewalk space was rented out to someone wanting to sell unusable junk from a portable stall, and still the waves of promises to sweep away all these ills rose up ever new and ever higher,” Brunetti laments

Again, the characters and the Venice setting are what makes this series so special.

A good addition as usual.

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