As I read this Commissario Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon in August, I discovered season sympathy with its Venetian summer setting. As Brunetti transverses scorching squares seeking shade, I fled from an air-conditioned car to air-conditioned work or home settings.

Donna Leon displays a delightful subtle sense of humor in her dialogues and Venetian food and settings shine. As the mystery develops the reader is immersed into the Venetian court system, politics, real estate and banking. The plot shades between black and white judgments in that several shocking deaths and crimes happen to “good people” by obvious “bad people” and the system seems to win over the individual. I wish all detectives were as wise and witty as Commissario Guido Brunetti.