Murder in Venice (Blood from a Stone - Donna Leon)

Member Name: sunmeilan

Product:	Blood from a Stone - Donna Leon
Date:	21/08/06 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Had me hooked from page 1

Disadvantages: Slightly disappointing ending

I’ve only read one of Donna Leon’s books before this, and although it wasn’t bad, I wasn’t that persuaded to read any more. Then I got given this one and decided that maybe I’d give her work another try. I’m glad I did. This book had me hooked right from the beginning and I also began to warm to her policeman hero, Commissario Guido Brunetti. I’m certainly looking forward to reading more of this author’s work.

The story
One evening in Venice, a group of American tourists witness the brutal murder of an African illegal immigrant, shot point-blank by two men as he tries to make a living selling fake handbags. By the time the police arrive, the murderers are long gone and the American tourists provide little evidence. Brunetti is called in and is intrigued at the death of a man who had not caused anyone any harm.

Believing the man to be Sengalese, he traces a group of Senegalese men living in an apartment together. They clearly know who the murdered man is, but refuse to say anything. Upstairs, in what he believes is the dead man’s bedroom, he finds a haul of diamonds, all of excellent quality. Further investigations, however, are thwarted by his boss, who tells him to keep away from the case because the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now in charge of the investigation. Knowing that something strange has happened, Brunetti tries to keep up with the investigation. Will the man’s murderers be discovered?

The characters
When I read the other book I’ve read in this series, I didn’t particularly take to Brunetti – he just seemed a bit like the other Italian detectives in books such as Michael Dibdin’s and Magdalene Nabb’s offerings. This time, I warmed to him a lot more. He is a good man working for an organisation that is almost as corrupt as the Mafia itself and frequently finds himself getting frustrated by the system and by the fact that he too is forced to do things illegally in order to get his job done. He really seemed to care about the dead man and was prepared to do whatever he could to find his murderer. He is a man that likes to work on his own, but he also gets on well with his immediate colleagues, Vianello and Signorina Elettra, who often manage to find out illicit information for him.

We also see more of Brunetti’s home life than with many fictional detectives. For once, he is happily married (hooray for a detective that doesn’t have relationship and drink problems) to Paola, a highly educated lady from a wealthy family and together they have two children, Chiara and Raffi. Family problems are dealt with sympathetically; Brunetti is not a husband and father who turns his back on his family to immerse himself in work. I did really grow to like him during the course of book. He feels genuine sympathy for the dead man and it is because of this that he gets too deeply involved, rather than because of frustration at not being able to find out the answers. All in all, he is a very realistic character, and I look forward to finding out more about him.

The author
Donna Leon is an American with both Irish and Spanish blood. However, she worked overseas as a teacher for a number of years, in countries such as England, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. She has lived in Venice for several years now.

Conclusion
This book was a pleasant surprise for me. I read it because it was given to me as a gift and I felt that I should rather than I wanted to. To find myself gripped from page 1 was a bonus that I wasn’t expecting. I do sometimes get a bit jaded about the number of authors who choose to set their detective fiction in Italy and I’ve always thought anyone who went down that route was trying to cash in on Michael Dibdin’s success, but I have to say I actually preferred this book to any of Dibdin’s. Donna Leon writes in a very straightforward way and there is little padding in the book. Dibdin, on the other hand, often makes his books so complicated that they are hard to follow and there is a lot of description that is frankly not always necessary. I also warmed to Brunetti a lot more than I ever have to Aurelio Zen.

The only slight disappointment about this book is that the ending is not as cut and dried as it could have been. This isn’t always a disadvantage, but in this case, I really did want to know a bit more than we were told. However, this was a small flaw in what was otherwise a really good book. I am going to highly recommend it, although it may make more sense to start with some of the earlier books first.

Blood from a Stone is available from play.com for £5.49 (including P&P). Published by Arrow Books, it has 320 pages. ISBN: 0099474182

Summary: Excellent read