Review: Death and Judgment (Commissario Brunetti, #4) by Donna Leon

Death and Judgment by Donna Leon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We return to the beautiful city of Venice and meet up once again with Commissario Guido Brunetti, in Donna Leon’s 4th book in the Commissario Brunetti Series.

A truck crashes on a mountain road in the Italian Dolomites, killing the driver and a cargo of unidentified women.
A month later, a prominent local lawyer, is found murder on an intercity train in Venice.

Two incidents that seem totally unrelated until Commissario Brunetti begins investigating the murder of the lawyer, who has a clean record – something Brunetti finds hard to believe in such a corrupt city like Venice.

And when the lawyer’s brother-in-law is murdered, Brunetti digs deeper into the coincidences that link the three crimes and discovers something so horrifying and so shocking that points to the powerful and elite society being part of a ring that deals with prostitution, human trafficking and the making of snuff movies and even child pornography.

This is a dark and sad story of how powerful people see themselves above the law and see corruption as just part of their lives. Corruption continues infiltrating everything in the city and how the country’s laws are so outdated and confusing, which makes it possible for criminals to bend the rules for their benefit.

Brunetti’s frustration at the abuse of power and how justice is manipulated is something that he feels strongly about.

“Why bother to put the boy who broke into a house in jail when the man who stole billions from the health system is named ambassador to the country to which he had been sending the money for years?”

We follow the thoughts and actions of different characters in the story as well as Brunetti’s, which gives us an insight about the case.

I enjoyed seeing the special bond Brunetti has with his daughter, Chiara, who even helps him out with the case by offering to be one of his “spies”.

We also see a bit of Brunetti’s humor……..

‘How will I know you?’ Brunetti asked, hoping della Corte wouldn’t be a cop who looked like a cop.
‘I’m bald. How will I know you?’
‘I look like a cop.’

The story is set in the 90’s and I had great fun reading about the new technology that was available at that time……Signorina Elletra, of course, is totally up to date with new items on the market…..

“I’ve had a modem installed on the Vice-Questore’s phone,” she said, pointing to a metal box that sat on the desk a few centimeters from the phone. Wires, Brunetti saw, led from the box to her computer.”

The results and conclusion of the case were frustrating and depressing.

Excellent story revolving around human trafficking and slavery which is still happening today.

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