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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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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Review: Dressed for Death (Commissario Brunetti, #3) by Donna Leon

Dressed for Death by Donna Leon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dressed to Kill, the 3rd book in Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti Series starts with a body found behind a slaughterhouse in Marghera. Despite the case falling under the Mestre police department, Brunetti is sent to investigate due to a shortage of detectives in that station. Brunetti is not pleased with the situation as he was due to start his leave and take his family to a vacation in the mountains.

At first, the body is thought to be of a male transvestite prostitute but when it’s identified as a married man and the director of the Bank of Verona, it seems that there is something more than just a prostituted murdered by a client.

Brunetti’s investigation uncovers a world of corruption, where powerful men are using male prostitutes as decoys in the scam involving illegal property rentals in Venice.

The intelligent and sensitive manner in which Brunetti deals with suspects is done so well.

I find the Brunetti family really interesting and fascinating. Their interaction is beautifully done and I particularly enjoy the chemistry between Guido and Paola….

“Once, walking with him, Paola had stopped and asked him what he was thinking about, and the fact that she was the only person in the world he would not be embarrassed to tell just what it was he had been thinking about at that moment convinced him, though a thousand things had already done so, that this was the woman he wanted to marry, had to marry, would marry.”

And finally……………….my favorite secretary/hacker is introduced!!!!

A clever and complex mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end.

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Review: Death in a Strange Country (Commissario Brunetti, #2) by Donna Leon

Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon


3,5 stars

"Death in a Strange Country, is the second book in Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti Series.
When the body of Sgt. Michael Foster, a public health inspector at the American base in Vicenza, is pulled up from a canal in Venice, it looks like a mugging gone wrong. But Brunetti is convinced that there’s something more than just an American being a victim of a robbery.

When he travels to the American base in Vicenza to obtain more information about Forster, he’s suddenly told by his inept and blustering boss, Vice-Quetore Patta that the case has been closed as a mugging gone wrong.

As more bodies turn up dead, Brunetti is determined to get to the bottom of what looks like a huge conspiracy linking the Mafia and the US and Italian governments in a cover-up of illegal toxic waste dumping. He’s unable to come to terms with the fact that the government could be involved in something so dangerous….

When Brunetti is pulled off the case, the more resolute he becomes in solving the mystery. Even if it means doing it behind his boss’s back.

‘“He looked down at the glass again. ‘I care that these things happen, that we poison ourselves and our progeny, that we knowingly destroy our future, but I do not believe that there is anything - and I repeat, anything - that can be done to prevent it. We are a nation of egoists. It is our glory, but it will be our destruction, for none of us can be made to concern ourselves about something as abstract as “the common good”. The best of us can rise to feeling concern for our families, but as a nation we are incapable of more.’

‘I refuse to believe that.’ Brunetti said.
‘Your refusal to believe it,’ the Count said with a smile that was almost tender, ‘makes it no less true, Guido.”– Poala’s father’s answer to Brunetti’s question about the corruption and ineptitude of their government.

We continue to see more of Brunetti’s family life and I enjoy the warmth and connection that he has with his wife…

Then I discovered girls, and I forgot all about being angry or lost, or whatever I was. I just wanted them to like me. That’s the only thing that was important to me.’
‘Were there a lot of them?’ she asked.
He shrugged.
‘And did they like you?’ He grinned.
‘Oh, go away, Guido, and find yourself something to do. Watch television.’
‘I hate television.’
‘Then help me do the dishes.’
‘I love television.’

We get to see how much he loves his city. The beauty that surrounds him….

The resolution in the end is one that Brunetti was happy about but understandable – where corruption is involved in governments without morals, it’s something one comes to expect.

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Review: Death at La Fenice (Commissario Brunetti, #1) by Donna Leon

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Death at La Fenice is the 1st book in the exciting Guido Brunetti Series by Donna Leon, set in the beautiful, romantic, mysterious and unique city of Venice.

The series features Commissario Guido Brunetti, family man, modest, moral, loyal and philosophical detective extraordinaire.


When famed conductor Helmut Wellauer is found dead in his dressing room between Acts 2 and 3 of the of LA TRAVIATA at the La Fenicia theatre, Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder by cyanide poisoning.
He immediately realizes that there’s a lot more about the victim than what he’s being told by the suspects …….his much younger wife and soprano, Flavia Petrelli and her lesbian lover, Brett Lynch and the people in his life who have been offended by his homophobic views. Brunetti also discovers Wellauer’s past as a Nazi sympathizer.

Narrated from Commissario Brunetti’s POV, we accompany him on his investigation and we experience his thoughts and musings as he works through the clues.

He’s forced to make choices between what the law is and what he believes is right. And that’s where we see the side of Brunetti that makes him such a moral person.

I enjoyed the segments with Brunetti’s family. There’s such love and warmth in their home. And I loved Paola, his wife.

If you enjoy a well-crafted and well-written story with beautiful settings and unforgettable characters, then this is the series for you.

I loved this segment in the book…………..

“Where does American money come from? Steel. Railways. You know how it is over there. It doesn’t matter if you murder or rob to get it. The trick is in keeping it for a hundred years, and then you’re aristocrats.’ ‘Is that so different from here?’ Brunetti asked. ‘Of course,’ Padovani explained, smiling. ‘Here we have to keep it five hundred years before we’re aristocrats. And there’s another difference. In Italy, you have to be well-dressed. In America, it’s difficult to tell which are the millionaires and which are the servants.”

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Review: Acqua Alta (Commissario Brunetti, #5) by Donna Leon

Acqua Alta by Donna Leon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alta Acqua, the 5th book in the Commisario Brunetti series by Donna Leone. The title of the book refers to the time in winter, where water from the Adriatic Sea overflows into Venice causing homes and places in the city.

Guido Brunetti, the highly skilled, tenacious and very likeable Venetian police detective and family man finds himself investigating a murder and art fraud after his friend, Brett Lynch, an American archeologist and companion of the famous opera singer Flavia Petrelli, who were introduced in the 1st book of the series, Death at La Fenice, is savagely attacked at her home.

He discovers that her assault is linked to the murder and to a conspiracy that involves people in high places who will go to any lengths to silence Brett from delving into the world of art fraud and the stealing of valuable Chinese antiquities.

Guido Brunetti is one of my favorite detective characters. He’s honest, gracious, loyal and resolute but he also sees not only the beauty of the city but also the rise in corruption and crime that is threatening his much beloved Venice. He’s not admitting that there are things in his country that he will never change.

”No Italian would bother to ask why the shipments were not made directory in Germany. The Germans, it was rumored, saw the law as something to be obeyed, unlike the Italians, who saw it as something first to be fathomed and then evaded.”

Once again, the city of Venice is as much a character as the setting of this series. Through Brunetti eyes we see the daily life of the city’s inhabitants, the local restaurants, bars, family life, politics the dark alleys and beautiful architecture.
The author’s vivid and descriptive words give a look into the life in Venice that gives you a picture in your head that you are actually there.

The main characters are so likeable and endearing and most of all incredibly real.
I adore the talented and glamorous secretary, Signorina Elettra and love it when Brunetti describes her clothes….

“Signorina Elletra pushed her chair back from her desk and crossed her legs, revealing a short red skirt and a pair of shoes so high they would have raised her above even the worst acqua alta.”

I am looking forward to knowing more about her in the next books.
I loved Brunetti’s family dynamics. His interaction and dialogue with his wife and children is so amazing.

And of course, there’s Brunetti’s boss, the bureaucratic peacock Giuseppe Patta…a total pain in the butt…

“He removed his coat and put it on a hanger, then hung it on the curtain rod that ran in front of the window above the radiator. Anyone looking into the room from across the canal would see, perhaps, a man who had hanged himself in his own office. If they worked in the Questura, their first impulse would no doubt be to count the floors, looking to see if it was Patta’s window.”

A great addition to this series.

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