A Sea of Troubles [Paperback]

Pellestrina is a thin strip of island south-west of the city of Venice (I'll take a moment here to congratulate the publishers for including a wonderful map of the area). Its population consists mostly of fishermen and their families. It is, in the nature of such communities, a very insular place. One day, a fishing boat catches fire in the harbour. It explodes, and sinks. The owner and his son are missing, only found when a diver investigates the wreck and discovers their bodies aboard. Enter Comissario Guido Brunetti, the most wonderful detective in all crime fiction. He has a hard time getting any information whatsoever from the people of Pellestrina, just attaining a vague impression that the owner of the boat wasn't particularly liked. When Singorina Elletra volunteers that she has family on the island, and that she will take a vacation there in an attempt to find out more about the locals and what they think and know, Brunetti is very wary of the idea. But she will not be dissuaded. Brunetti finds himself not only having to confront issues of her safety, but of his somewhat ambiguous feelings for her.

The only word for the book is wonderful. Venice is described beautifully, as is the isolated community of Pellestrina. Brunetti is his usual marvellous self. His family are a joy as well, his children drifting in the background like life-affirming spirits. There are some issues with his wonderful wife, whose instincts tell her that Brunetti perhaps feels a little too much for the secretary Elletra. The plotting is excellent, the setting likewise. At last we see how gloriously human Elletra is. In other books she is an intriguing enigma, but here she gains humanity. A personality. It was wonderful to discover more about her, how her mind works, to see her in a different, more revealing light. It was a brave move on Leon's part, and it works spectacularly. At times in previous novels, Elletra has seemed a little machine-like, but now she is more real, more a character, and will be all the better for it in new books. The conclusion, during a violent storm on the Venetian laguna, is tense and exciting, the solution is excellent, all the more gratifying for that Leon only elaborates minimally, leaving the reader to use their brains for once, This is rare enough in fiction.

I've said before, and I will say again now, that the fact that Leon writes these crime novels purely for her own amusement really shines through. Primarily, Leon's first love is opera, and the cash she gets from being a bestseller all across the world only supplements that hobby and her own opera company. That she writes these almost as a secondary hobby, for her own entertainment, gives them a sense of being very relaxed, and it is very welcome and very refreshing. I love almost everything about these novels. Anyone who picks one up is not going to be disappointed.

Pellestrina is a thin strip of island south-west of the city of Venice (I'll take a moment here to congratulate the publishers for including a wonderful map of the area). Its population consists mostly of fishermen and their families. It is, in the nature of such communities, a very insular place. One day, a fishing boat catches fire in the harbour. It explodes, and sinks. The owner and his son are missing, only found when a diver investigates the wreck and discovers their bodies aboard. Enter Comissario Guido Brunetti, the most wonderful detective in all crime fiction. He has a hard time getting any information whatsoever from the people of Pellestrina, just attaining a vague impression that the owner of the boat wasn't particularly liked. When Singorina Elletra volunteers that she has family on the island, and that she will take a vacation there in an attempt to find out more about the locals and what they think and know, Brunetti is very wary of the idea. But she will not be dissuaded. Brunetti finds himself not only having to confront issues of her safety, but of his somewhat ambiguous feelings for her.

The only word for the book is wonderful. Venice is described beautifully, as is the isolated community of Pellestrina. Brunetti is his usual marvellous self. His family are a joy as well, his children drifting in the background like life-affirming spirits. There are some issues with his wonderful wife, whose instincts tell her that Brunetti perhaps feels a little too much for the secretary Elletra. The plotting is excellent, the setting likewise. At last we see how gloriously human Elletra is. In other books she is an intriguing enigma, but here she gains humanity. A personality. It was wonderful to discover more about her, how her mind works, to see her in a different, more revealing light. It was a brave move on Leon's part, and it works spectacularly. At times in previous novels, Elletra has seemed a little machine-like, but now she is more real, more a character, and will be all the better for it in new books. The conclusion, during a violent storm on the Venetian laguna, is tense and exciting, the solution is excellent, all the more gratifying for that Leon only elaborates minimally, leaving the reader to use their brains for once, This is rare enough in fiction.

I've said before, and I will say again now, that the fact that Leon writes these crime novels purely for her own amusement really shines through. Primarily, Leon's first love is opera, and the cash she gets from being a bestseller all across the world only supplements that hobby and her own opera company. That she writes these almost as a secondary hobby, for her own entertainment, gives them a sense of being very relaxed, and it is very welcome and very refreshing. I love almost everything about these novels. Anyone who picks one up is not going to be disappointed.