Beastly Things
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"As if Brunetti weren't already steaming about the 'mindless, atavistic greed' motivating everything from the shabby practices of the banking industry to the irresponsible dredging of the Grand Canal, Leon hits him with a crime that really tries his soul ... So he takes his pleasures where he can--at home with his family, in his favorite coffee bars and on long walks around Venice - but after this case, the city he loves will never be quite the same for him."--Marilyn Stasio, "The New York Times Book Review"
"Followers of the series and lovers of Venice will appreciate Leon's fascinating details of life in this unique city. ... This is a strong series entry."--Dan Forrest, "Library Journal"
"Through the 21 novels in her much-loved Guido Brunetti series, Leon has tackled various social issues, from human trafficking through immigration policy and sexual abuse, always with great sensitivity toward not only the criminal aspects of the issue but also the more ambiguous toll that societal malfunction takes on individual lives. So it is again in this wrenching tale of the murder of a quiet veterinarian, the victim of a tragedy of almost classical dimensions. ... A seemingly straightforward mystery written with such delicacy and emotional force that we can't help but be reminded of Greek tragedy." --Bill Ott, "Booklist" (starred review)
"It is a pleasure for a reader to settle in to one of Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries, once again to have one of those glorious Italian lunches with his wife, Paola, and their children, Raffi and Chiara, and to learn, as we do in Beastly Things, which part of the seamy underside of Venetian life Brunetti will now uncover. ...This time, a body is found in one of the canals. It is eventually identified as a local veterinarian, Dottore Nava, well-loved by his patients and their owners. ... The way Brunetti figures out what happened and who killed Nava is first-rate Donna Leon plotting."--Valerie Ryan, She
"Followers of the series and lovers of Venice will appreciate Leon's fascinating details of life in this unique city. ... This is a strong series entry."--Dan Forrest, "Library Journal"
"Through the 21 novels in her much-loved Guido Brunetti series, Leon has tackled various social issues, from human trafficking through immigration policy and sexual abuse, always with great sensitivity toward not only the criminal aspects of the issue but also the more ambiguous toll that societal malfunction takes on individual lives. So it is again in this wrenching tale of the murder of a quiet veterinarian, the victim of a tragedy of almost classical dimensions. ... A seemingly straightforward mystery written with such delicacy and emotional force that we can't help but be reminded of Greek tragedy." --Bill Ott, "Booklist" (starred review)
"It is a pleasure for a reader to settle in to one of Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries, once again to have one of those glorious Italian lunches with his wife, Paola, and their children, Raffi and Chiara, and to learn, as we do in Beastly Things, which part of the seamy underside of Venetian life Brunetti will now uncover. ...This time, a body is found in one of the canals. It is eventually identified as a local veterinarian, Dottore Nava, well-loved by his patients and their owners. ... The way Brunetti figures out what happened and who killed Nava is first-rate Donna Leon plotting."--Valerie Ryan, She
Book Description
Number 21 in the Commissario Brunetti series from Donna Leon, the Sunday Times bestselling author of Drawing Conclusions
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"Beastly Things" is another well-written episode of the Commissario Guido Brunetti series albeit one that seems even darker and more contemplative than usual. For me, this story transcended the crime genre into something more like an insightful, psychological novel.
We have to assume that author Donna Leon uses her wonderfully sketched protagonist, Brunetti, to voice her own concerns about social and political issues that plague his (and her) Italian home of Venice, and those concerns have multiplied over the years as traditional woes with corruption in politics have been added to by the plight of immigrants in Italy, the trafficking in women in children, rampant polluting and pollution and myriad other forms of criminal behavior that generally are based in the sins well-described by Leon's early predecessor Dante.
"Beastly Things" opens with the murder of a local veterinarian. The investigation that follows uncovers something far more sinister, something that threatens the population at large. This crime vs. general threat is deftly--even brilliantly--handled by Leon as she describes the reactions of bystanders to details of the two kinds of crime. To be sure the author's outrage, as expressed through Brunetti, is appropriately great and expanding as the case moves toward its resolution. Greed is at the bottom of all of it, and Brunetti is allowed some powerful feelings that cause him to cut ethical corners in order to punish the perpetrators.
Built into this novel--and a few others in the series--is the basic question of what measures can be taken by decent people of authority to combat pervasive corruption, venality and criminality that is protected or indulged by people of even higher authority. In "Beastly Things", the estimable Signorina Elletra is at the core of that question. Brunetti's formidable wife, Paolo, has a similar dilemma at the university where she teaches, which requires a weighing of the same question.
I think one the great things about the Brunetti series has been that continued personal growth of the protagonist as a human being--some of it coming from the normal aging process (assuming that age produces wisdom) and some of it coming from association with the secondary characters whom author Leon endows with credible and interesting personalities.
For me, "Beastly Things" was one of those books that I liked even better after finishing for its intelligent message of moral outrage, justice and redemption. It's one of the Brunetti books where there is very clear retribution at story's end even if it comes with some moral compromises by the admirable commissario. Recommended. 4++
We have to assume that author Donna Leon uses her wonderfully sketched protagonist, Brunetti, to voice her own concerns about social and political issues that plague his (and her) Italian home of Venice, and those concerns have multiplied over the years as traditional woes with corruption in politics have been added to by the plight of immigrants in Italy, the trafficking in women in children, rampant polluting and pollution and myriad other forms of criminal behavior that generally are based in the sins well-described by Leon's early predecessor Dante.
"Beastly Things" opens with the murder of a local veterinarian. The investigation that follows uncovers something far more sinister, something that threatens the population at large. This crime vs. general threat is deftly--even brilliantly--handled by Leon as she describes the reactions of bystanders to details of the two kinds of crime. To be sure the author's outrage, as expressed through Brunetti, is appropriately great and expanding as the case moves toward its resolution. Greed is at the bottom of all of it, and Brunetti is allowed some powerful feelings that cause him to cut ethical corners in order to punish the perpetrators.
Built into this novel--and a few others in the series--is the basic question of what measures can be taken by decent people of authority to combat pervasive corruption, venality and criminality that is protected or indulged by people of even higher authority. In "Beastly Things", the estimable Signorina Elletra is at the core of that question. Brunetti's formidable wife, Paolo, has a similar dilemma at the university where she teaches, which requires a weighing of the same question.
I think one the great things about the Brunetti series has been that continued personal growth of the protagonist as a human being--some of it coming from the normal aging process (assuming that age produces wisdom) and some of it coming from association with the secondary characters whom author Leon endows with credible and interesting personalities.
For me, "Beastly Things" was one of those books that I liked even better after finishing for its intelligent message of moral outrage, justice and redemption. It's one of the Brunetti books where there is very clear retribution at story's end even if it comes with some moral compromises by the admirable commissario. Recommended. 4++
43 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I always learn something while reading Donna Leon's mysteries. For instance, although I'd seen the vu compra, the African immigrant street vendors, in Venice, I didn't know anything about them until I read Blood From A Stone (2005).
In this latest Commissario Brunetti mystery, Beastly Things, we learn about slaughterhouses and the meat processing industry. A visit to the slaughterhouse leaves even toughened cops Brunetti and Inspector Vianello speechless. And while they don't actually skip lunch afterward, they both opt for vegetarian sandwiches.
Beastly Things doesn't stand out among Leon's mysteries, but it is a dependable police procedural that keeps the murder in the forefront throughout. Some of her recent books have concentrated more on issues of the day rather than the mystery.
Of interest apart from the case itself were some apparent doubts expressed by Vianello and Brunetti as they once again turned to the Questura's (police headquarters) secretary, Signorina Elettra, to hack into databases they have no legal right to access. They wonder if they rely too much on Elettra's technical wizardry. Leon herself might have been asking the question of herself, at least as it regards the solutions to many of her mysteries, which often rely on Signorina Elettra's unofficial discoveries. Even as a reader, I wonder if I would be as amused if the unpleasant Lieutenant Scarpa or if Brunetti himself were doing the hacking? Elettra is such an engaging character that I look forward to her hacking exploits.
It's no coincidence that Leon has Brunetti's English professor wife, Paola, tussling with an ethical dilemma of her own. Not surprisingly, Paola comes to a decision that will allow her to sleep at night. Brunetti, once again forced to choose between doing the right thing and the legal thing, doesn't have that luxury.
In this latest Commissario Brunetti mystery, Beastly Things, we learn about slaughterhouses and the meat processing industry. A visit to the slaughterhouse leaves even toughened cops Brunetti and Inspector Vianello speechless. And while they don't actually skip lunch afterward, they both opt for vegetarian sandwiches.
Beastly Things doesn't stand out among Leon's mysteries, but it is a dependable police procedural that keeps the murder in the forefront throughout. Some of her recent books have concentrated more on issues of the day rather than the mystery.
Of interest apart from the case itself were some apparent doubts expressed by Vianello and Brunetti as they once again turned to the Questura's (police headquarters) secretary, Signorina Elettra, to hack into databases they have no legal right to access. They wonder if they rely too much on Elettra's technical wizardry. Leon herself might have been asking the question of herself, at least as it regards the solutions to many of her mysteries, which often rely on Signorina Elettra's unofficial discoveries. Even as a reader, I wonder if I would be as amused if the unpleasant Lieutenant Scarpa or if Brunetti himself were doing the hacking? Elettra is such an engaging character that I look forward to her hacking exploits.
It's no coincidence that Leon has Brunetti's English professor wife, Paola, tussling with an ethical dilemma of her own. Not surprisingly, Paola comes to a decision that will allow her to sleep at night. Brunetti, once again forced to choose between doing the right thing and the legal thing, doesn't have that luxury.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I turned to this book with perhaps slightly lower expectations than in the past, bred by a couple of years of less than scintillating offerings from Donna Leon. However while I would not place this at the top of my "Favourite Donna Leons" list, I can report with delight that "Beastly Things" is far from beastly, and is indeed a pleasure to read.
The pleasure is a little qualified by the nature of the subjects whch Leon covers (here both the Venice barrage and the meat industry are in her sights) - but her fans will be ready for her disturbingly keen eye to be cast on yet another less than well managed area of Italian infrastructure - and to describe it so clearly that you participate in her anger and unhappiness.
But in essence the book is a classic police procedural, enhanced by the well loved characters who have grown with the series. It is, this time, a real murder; as if responding to some criticisms on these lines we start with the body of a man - most certainly murdered - in the Venetian morgue. And we take in such classic detective novel points as - if a man is found at point X at Y o clock, and died at Z olock, where did he enter the water? Yet the book is much more than a well constructed detective novel; at the heart of the book, and the title is the victim himself, whose appearance is beastly and who, it transpires, is a good and kind worker with beasts - a vet. The question Brunetti must answer is what did this good and kind man do to end his life stabbed in the back and shoved in the water? And marching alongside his enquiry, which takes him to the moral dilemmas of the victim, march his and his friends' own moral dilemmas - his ongoing battle with the legality of Signorina Ellettra's hacking versus its extraordinary efficiency in helping to bring justice to bear, the shifts and half lies involved in an effective interrogation, the rightness of using class and financial pressure to prevent others using class and financial pressure to bring about a wrong.
Other pleasures from the book are the sense that (again after a few books where characters seemed becalmed) life within those chracters is on the move. Elletra is restive - what shocks has she for us in future? And most intruigingly Patta, that most two dimensional of men, seems to be stirring into life. Here we find him confronting a moral dilemma of his own and, unlike so many of the better people about him, actually taking a high moral stand which costs him dear. What next? I shall look forward to next year's Brunetti instalment with keen anticipation!
The pleasure is a little qualified by the nature of the subjects whch Leon covers (here both the Venice barrage and the meat industry are in her sights) - but her fans will be ready for her disturbingly keen eye to be cast on yet another less than well managed area of Italian infrastructure - and to describe it so clearly that you participate in her anger and unhappiness.
But in essence the book is a classic police procedural, enhanced by the well loved characters who have grown with the series. It is, this time, a real murder; as if responding to some criticisms on these lines we start with the body of a man - most certainly murdered - in the Venetian morgue. And we take in such classic detective novel points as - if a man is found at point X at Y o clock, and died at Z olock, where did he enter the water? Yet the book is much more than a well constructed detective novel; at the heart of the book, and the title is the victim himself, whose appearance is beastly and who, it transpires, is a good and kind worker with beasts - a vet. The question Brunetti must answer is what did this good and kind man do to end his life stabbed in the back and shoved in the water? And marching alongside his enquiry, which takes him to the moral dilemmas of the victim, march his and his friends' own moral dilemmas - his ongoing battle with the legality of Signorina Ellettra's hacking versus its extraordinary efficiency in helping to bring justice to bear, the shifts and half lies involved in an effective interrogation, the rightness of using class and financial pressure to prevent others using class and financial pressure to bring about a wrong.
Other pleasures from the book are the sense that (again after a few books where characters seemed becalmed) life within those chracters is on the move. Elletra is restive - what shocks has she for us in future? And most intruigingly Patta, that most two dimensional of men, seems to be stirring into life. Here we find him confronting a moral dilemma of his own and, unlike so many of the better people about him, actually taking a high moral stand which costs him dear. What next? I shall look forward to next year's Brunetti instalment with keen anticipation!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not one of her best
I have read many of Leon's books and thoroughly enjoyed them. This one was disappointing and had I read it first, probably I would not have gone on to read others. Read more
Published 7 hours ago by JPW
Donna Leon in sombre mood
I've read all of Donna Leon's Brunetti books the charm of which is not so much the detection of crime but the evocation of the atmosphere of Venice and the strong charactization of... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Bluebell
Beastly things
Donna Leon's latest, Beastly Things, is one of her best. As with all of her better outings with Commisario Brunetti and his family, it begins with a body. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Borilla
Beastly Things
Having read all of Donna Leons books, I always look forward to a new one, and this one does not disappoint. Read more
Published 10 days ago by busy sewer
A good read
A return to form by Donna Leon. The familiar characters are there and the writing excellent. The author continues to despair of the Italian Bureaucracy and corruption. Read more
Published 10 days ago by pml
Beastly things
I am a great lover of Venice and all things Venetian and especiall Donna Leon's books. this again was a very good story
Published 11 days ago by Rev. Shirley Ludlow
beastly things
i have read all donna leon books i love the life of guido bruntti there are different for the normal crime books whether its because thay get on a boat to work or the magic of... Read more
Published 12 days ago by stjamespark
Another winner
I love getting a new Donna Leon book and this was not disappointing. As usual a gripping good read = beautifully crafted
Published 17 days ago by Fiona m
Leon triumphs again
Reading the latest Donna Leon book was like being back with old friends, Brunetti and family. The plot was well drawn and the outcome was not predictable until very late in the... Read more
Published 19 days ago by soapie
venetian crime
I have read all donna leons book about her venetian detective. i enjoyed this one, although I found it a bit low key compared with her earlier books.
Published 19 days ago by mrsjennifer A. dyson
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