Suffer the Little Children

Have you voted in the photo contest yet? Remember a 10 is good! *smile*

I first got to know the work of Donna Leon when I was planning our trip to Italy last year. there was a posting about mystery novels set in Italy and Leon was recommended. On a leap of faith, I ordered her first book off of amazon.ca and was soon hooked! Her 16th book was recently published.

Commissario Guido Brunetti is one of the most sympathetic police detectives in crime fiction. His commitment to justice and truth frequently leave him at odds with the sometimes corrupt Italian government and social systems, and this conflict often drives the plot of the novels. One of the most delightful aspects of these stories is Brunetti’s interactions with his wife, Paola, a university professor, and their two children. Leon uses the contrast between the loving home life of the Brunetti family and the often dark lives of the people the Brunetti encounters in his work to build tension in the stories.

The city of Venice plays an equally important role in the stories, and Leon writes with an obvious love for and an intimate knowledge of the Queen of the Adriatic. The side streets and canals and small eating places all come alive in Leon’s stories, and she describes the seasons and changes of light and weather in Venice in beautifully descriptive prose.

Attacking corruption seems to be a favorite theme of Donna Leon. And along the way, there's usually a murder or two to solve. And in the case of her latest Commassario Guido Brunetti thriller, Leon is, once again, on target.

This time the venerable Venice police officer is confronted with the issue of illegal child adoption practices and the accompanying ramifications therein. As in the previous 15 Brunetti novels, Leon looks at her home city and addresses one or more of its myriad problems, social and otherwise. Still, this series is not about Venice, which she loves, but those characters and issues that attack the sheer beauty and even moral turpitude of the Pearl of the Adriatic.

With Brunetti's ace team (Signorina Eletra and Sgt. Vianello, especially), the cases eventually come to a conclusion. Of course, as is usual for a Leon book, the endings are not always satisfying to the reader who is looking for the "happily ever after" approach. Brunetti (and Leon) do not solve the corruption and other socially significant issues, as, of course, these issues continue right along, but they do work on "justice, one person at a time." The murderer usually pays for his (or her) crime. Leon, though, says she's not about to give up on Venice, but sometimes "political corruption is simply a way of life there."

When Commissario Brunetti is summoned to the hospital bedside of a senior pediatrician whose skull has been fractured in a brutal attack, he is confronted with more questions than answers. Three men have burst into the doctor's apartment in the middle of the night, attacked him and taken away his eighteen-month old son. What can have motivated such a violent assault?

As he investigates Brunetti begins to uncover a story of infertility, desperation, and an underworld in which babies can be bought for cash. Meanwhile, Inspector Vianello has uncovered a money-making scam between pharmacists and doctors in the city. But one of the pharmacists is motivated by more than thoughts of gain - the power of knowledge and delusions of moral rectitude can be as destructive and powerful as love of money. And certain information about one's neighbours can lead to all kinds of corruption and all sorts of pain... Donna Leon's new novel is as subtle and gripping as ever, set in a beautifully-realized Venice, seething with small-town malice.

Comments

[Robert]

Thanks for bringing this author to my attention. I have added a heap of her books to my wishlist on Amazon!

Oh, and I have voted for you and Barbara - nice pictures submitted by both of you.

[Jerry]

Thanks for the vote Rob!

I have quite enjoyed Leon's books - particular the intimate manner in which she describes the city of Venice. You really geta sense of being directly there yourself.