The Anonymous Venetian

Venice is never a mere background for Donna Leon's engaging mysteries: the city is as much a character in the unfolding plot as the police and the villains. And Venice, it seems, is never short of villains. There is corruption at the heart of the case that confronts the amiable Commissario Brunetti but the story begins with a body. Not a body that is what it at first appears, but one that leads into the louche world of transvestite prostitution.Leon's books are the more believable for the fact that police success stems not from brilliant deduction but from persistence and a certain amount of luck. Brunetti, one feels, deserves what good fortune there is as reward for having to give up a holiday escape from the midsummer heat; instead, he stays behind while his wife and children take to the mountains. The somewhat tense family phone conversations, the meals the Commissario consoles himself with counterpoint the highs and lows of the investigation.These are real people in a real city. The heat comes off the page. Another Donna Leon success.

Quite a different scene from the previous two books. A rather nasty industrial area is described with a rather ugly slaughterhouse set in scrubland. Not how most of us are taught to envisage Venice. And partly concealed by a bush a red satin high heeled shoe The shoe is on a foot which is attached to a body wearing a cheap red dress. The body is that of a man. Oh. Donna Leon unfolds and expands the story in her inimical talented way and keeps Commissario Brunnetti busy through the torrid heat of summer when most Venetians take to the hills. Brunnetti's wife Paola daughter Chiara and son Raffaele are there as a very human family again and of course there are precise descriptions of the food and drink Brunnetti enjoys. And justice is done!

I have read a number of books featuring Commissario Brunetti and generally enjoy them. I have been trying to read them in sequence and this was one I missed. I like the character Brunetti, and the balance between being a police officer and family man. I also like the fact that the stories introduce you to some of the more unattractive features of Venice i.e. pollution, over crowding, chaotic governance so it isn't all romance and beauty and a bit of a learning curve and of course authentic as the author lives in Venice.

I devowered all of Donna Leons Brunetti novels long ago and this is as good a read as all her others. I would love to see a kindle edition to add to my collection, please! If you go to Venice, be sure to read this or any of her other crime novels. They deliver a seamier side of Venice, deliciously away from the touristy icing of the Serenissima.

All Brunetti novels are standalone stories each a complete revelation on different aspects crime and intrigue