The Girl of His Dreams by Donna LeonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Girl of His Dreams, the 17th novel in Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti Series opens with Brunetti attending his mother's funeral, where he's approached by a priest, a friend of Brunetti's brother, asking him to investigate a new age minister who may be swindling Venetian old parishioners.
There is quite a few things that happen in this story but the main mystery that Brunetti and Vianello investigate relates to a body of a young girl found in one of the city's canals. This leads them into the local gypsy communities and how children are used to rob the homes of the local rich Venetian community.
Corruption continues to erode Brunetti's beloved city. Bribes are an accepted part of Venetian life.
In recent years, Brunetti had begun to see the death of the young as the theft of years, decades, generations. Each time he learned of the willed, unnecessary destruction of a young person, whether it was the result of crime or of one of the many futile wars that snuffed out their lives, he counted out the years until they would have been seventy and added up the plundered years of life. His own government had stolen centuries; other governments had stolen millennia, had stamped out the joy these kids might and should have had. Even if life had brought them misery or pain, it would still have brought them life, not the void that Brunetti saw looming after death.
We continue following Brunetti's life with his family and his work colleagues, which is a total pleasure.
The last couple of books in this series have been somewhat lackluster and I am happy to say that this is a much better one.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment