From what I can ascertain, having not read Donna Leon or her Commissario Brunetti novels previously, this is the twentieth instalment of the criminal detection capabilities of said Commissario. Having said that, it would then come as no surprise (and especially not to Brunetti devotees) that Leon’s Venice and her detective are sufficiently enough drawn and developed to afford her writing an authenticity sometimes lacking in fictional crime. Leon obviously knows her man and his locale intimately, and that intimacy shines through this particular tome like morning sunlight off the Basilica.
In his latest outing Brunetti remains unconvinced that the cause of death of Signora Altavilla (a patron of battered immigrant girls) was from natural causes. Although scowled upon by his constantly-irritated superior Vice-Questore Patta, Brunetti continues to scratch at the fast-sinking underbelly of Venice until finally a feasible motive begins to emerge. With lovingly-penned interplay between Brunetti and his obstinate wife, Drawing Conclusions, while not setting the world of literary crime fiction ablaze, adds the quirks and inconsistencies of life to a nicely-brewing pot boiler. In the end of course Brunetti prevails, but he does so, one is left to conclude, with a generosity of spirit which runs not merely through him, but through his creator too.
Venice might well be slowly disappearing but regardless Donna Leon’s Brunetti and the ever-resourceful Signorina Elettra will undoubtedly find a way to remain afloat.