Death and Judgment (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries) | Donna Leon

Death and Judgment (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries) | Donna Leon | Another Leon winner

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Death and Judgment...

	Death and Judgment (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries) Donna Leon Penguin Books, 2006 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

With more than 500,000 copies of her books in print in the United States, Donna Leon continues to find new fans for her riveting Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries. In Death and Judgment, a truck crashes and spills its dangerous cargo on a treacherous road in the Italian Dolomite mountains. Meanwhile, in Santa Lucia, a prominent international lawyer is found dead aboard an intercity train. Suspecting a connection between the two tragedies, Brunetti digs deep for an answer, stumbling upon a seedy Venetian bar that holds the key to a crime network that reaches far beyond the laguna. But it will take another violent death in Venice before Brunetti and his colleagues begin to understand what is really going on.

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A very vivid book.

The first scene is of an accident involving a large carrier-truck in the mountains which, crashing, spills and kills its contents: the corpses of women lie in the snow, littering the mountainside like so many bright dolls.

As in many Brunetti novels, justice does not light upon all the principal perpetrators of the worst crime, but on middlemen, illegally, some of whon you are glad to see go. And others, not.

There is a phrase in the English language which may have aroused your curiosity in the past--do such things exist? What are they like if they do? Donna Leon walks you through one, and you will never forget it...even if you want to. (Like the Chicago trolly fire of 1950? Something like that, but that was an accident).

My sister and I have often wondered aloud: why hasn't Leon been assassinated, by one government or another? She really lets it all hang out--the corruption, legal and otherwise, perpetrated not only in Italy, but our country and others as well.

WELL! Happy reading! It's one of my favorites.

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Another Leon winner

Whether you are a Donna Leon fan or not, this Inspector Brunetti mystery is in the true Leon genre, insightful of the lovable but often corruptible Venetian, and in essence, Italian culture. She weaves a plot line full of intrigue and possible evildoers, along with the usual and colorful suspects....his wife, children, Vianello, Patta, Scarpa and the delightful Signorina Elettra. In this particular story, one of the many existing problems that goes hand in hand with illegal immigration, is the problem of 'kidnapping' foreign women from troubled and often impoverished countries and bringing them into Italy and forcing them into prostitution for survival. Inspector Brunetti is a master of solving these dilemnas and keeping the peace among the less than moral administrators to whom he must report. Leon tells a story that goes beyond the plotline and reveals some of the essence of contemporary Italian society.
As a lover of Italian life and culture, Donna Leon's novels do not diminish this passion, but do ring home some of the problems in current Italian life and underscore exisiting problems throughout Europe and the fast changing world we live in.

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Bravo for Brunetti!

This is my first Donna Leon mystery and my first introduction to Brunetti. It won't be my last. Brunetti provides us with a disarming if somewhat ambling policeman working against the backdrop of beautiful Venice, brought to rich atmospheric life skillfully through Leon's writing.

I'm not certain why it's published under 2 different names and I didn't feel that Death and Judgment exactly captured the essence of this caper. Nevertheless, it was a good solid read with a charming protagonist, complex plot and multi-dimensional characters. Nicely cadenced, graceful and accomplished, with a plot that juxtaposes the ugliness of crime against the corruption of some of Italy's elite. I'll be back for more of Leon's Brunetti novels.

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A Brutal Existential Look at Ethics

Please be aware that this book also appeared under the title of A Venetian Reckoning. If you are trying to read the whole series, read one or the other. This is the fourth novel in the Guido Brunetti series of mysteries.

As the book opens, it's late September and a Rumanian truck carrying lumber plunges off the road and into a rock face to open up a grisly scene of crushed and broken young women amid scattered pine boards. Paolo, Guido's wife, notes the story where it remains tucked in her memory until it can provide a critical clue.

The scene shifts to late November when prominent international lawyer Carlo Trevisan is found murdered on a late night train to Venice, where Trevisan lived. Vice-Questore Patta is annoyed that he had been called to the scene when Brunetti could not be reached. The mayor of Venice quickly calls the next morning to ask for a quick and quiet solution. Since there's no evidence of robbery, Brunetti must probe into motives. Who didn't like Trevisan?

Brunetti gets a quick leg up when Signorina Elletra's sister agrees to share information about the wife and daughter of the murdered man, who had been patients. When the crime comes up for discussion at home, Brunetti's daughter, Chiara, says she knows the daughter and agrees to ask around a bit.

When Chiara turns out to be good at snooping through gossiping with friends, there's a major confrontation in the Brunetti household concerning the ethics of such undercover methods employing a minor.

The case becomes more clouded when a successful accountant is found dead of an apparent suicide, but leaving behind the telephone number of the dead attorney in his address book. When the numbers are matched up with the records of the attorney's calling, they show a disturbing pattern . . . including many international calls and to a bar where the ladies rent by the hour in a rough part of town.

Trevisan's widow and her brother seem determined to shut off the police investigation. Frustrated that he's getting nowhere, Brunetti calls in a favor for a judge who tells him more about the background of the attorney and his family. Tracking through a tangled series of clues, the case takes one more twisted turn when the widow's brother is also killed.

The case breaks open quite suddenly when an unexpected clue is dropped into Brunetti's lap. From there, it's a question of how to accomplish justice. But is there any justice other than God's? You may be reminded of the myth of Sisyphus as you contemplate the ending of this existential look at the human condition.

For those who like action and mysteries evolving in ways that they can solve just ahead of the author's revelations, Death and Judgment will be a disappointment. But for those who enjoy tough ethical questions, this is a very fine book. In either case, the book's primary limitation is Ms. Leon's customary dark view of human nature. In this book, she goes about as far as you can go and still slightly separate humans from vicious, uncaring predators.

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Not her best