Customer Reviews

Death In A Strange Country: (Brunetti)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Thus opens Donna Leon's second Brunetti novel, building diligently on her first. The characters become deeper and the criminal landscape of Venice broader. We learn more about Brunetti's personal and professional life and learn to sympathise more with the impediments placed in his way by friend and foe alike.

I will not give details of the plot, save to say that it is credible and clever. We are kept on tenterhooks until the very last chapter, where the disappointment we had envisaged in the sight of crime not paying its proper dues is suddenly lifted through the act of a heartbroken mother.

My only complaint? The map is quite useless without a magnifying glass.

But I'm entranced enough to already be halfway through the third in the series, "The Anonymous Venetian".

Donna Leon definitely caught my attention with the first book in this series, and now she has made me a fan of her wonderful work. Leon's excellence is based on three main concepts: a complex main character, an enchanting environment, and of course a well-crafted mystery. Commissario Guido Brunetti is one of the most interesting detectives I have encountered in quite some time. His personality and family life make him a character with which we can relate fairly quickly, and his uncompromising attitude towards delivering justice for those that have been wronged is one to admire. Venice is the perfect setting for this character, and allows Leon to use its canals and rich history to add mystique to the plot. And then there is the murder case, which is complex without being contrived, and keeps us interested until we find out the truth.

This novel starts at full speed, catching our interest right away, with a body floating in a canal on a quiet morning. Brunetti is soon placed in charge of the investigation and finds out that the victim is an American and that the killer was either very skilled or very lucky, since death came after a perfect stroke with a blade. When the victim is identified as a Sergeant in an army post in Vicenza, the case becomes much more complicated and Brunetti has to deal with people trying to mislead him and cover up the truth. On top of this, there is a second case, involving a robbery, which adds variety to the story and allows for the introduction of some really colorful characters.

Last time, Leon's work incorporated many aspects related to the world of Opera and classical music, and this time the canals and the way in which their currents work take center stage. As happened in the first book of this series, we get to see a fair amount of what transpires in Brunetti's family life. Leon uses the food proficiently to convey how important meals are in the Italian culture, and how this family time results in captivating interactions. We also get to witness situations in which the culture plays an important role, like fights within the police department with the subsequent grudges, or higher-ups in the department sucking up to powerful people.

I believe that there is not much more to say. This novel is definitely a winner and I recommend it without reservations! I am already looking forward to reading the next Brunetti mystery.

Some time ago I wrote in a review of an Ian Rankin book that I wasn't really into crime as a genre. Something's happened since then and it's now my regular stress-busting bit of escapism and I have to 'fess up to being a convert to low-life detective novels(when it's good anyway).

Donna Leon is certainly good - Death in a Strange County is the first of her books I've read and there is an enticingly large array of other books by her to move on to. It was a single-evening read and delivered everything it should. Guido (the Venetian policeman) is a good hero - not too macho, not too fey - a palpable person. And Venice - I was there. Leon really manages to evoke the workaday reality of the city. I was unsurprised to find out she lives there as it was every inch the city I know.

Great fun, smooth writing, good characterisation and a plausible plot. Just what you need when the winter evenings are drawing in.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and this one was even better than that one. It was exciting from page 1 to page 373, the very last page.
It starts out with a body of a young, handsome American discovered at an unchristly hour in one of Venezia's canals. At first it is thought that he is a tourist that has been robbed but the stabwound says different and soon they know that he was a soldier from the American Army post in Vicenza. Brunetti runs in to silence wherever he turns. And the reader wonders how on earth this mystery is ever going to get solved. The man's commanding officer, a woman, turns out to have been his lover and soon she is dead as well. That is when Brunetti is finally starting to get some clues and the tale one gets to read is so sinister, so corrupt that one gets scared. US and Italian governments are involved and so is the mafia. It seems like the book is going to end in an unsolved case or rather a hopeless case where one can not get justice and then boom, justice is served. Do we dare to ever set our foot in Italy again???
I must read the next one in the series, the Anonymous Venetian.

I am half way through reading the detective novels of Donna Leon and have had immense pleasure in doing so. The one I have just finished reading is "Death in a Strange Country" and I believe it to be the best I have read up to now. It is finely balanced between a detective novel and a completely plausible horror story. Earlier this year (2009) I had a five week artist residency in Venice and the Commisarrio Brunetti novels have enhanced that experience, having read one whilst there I subsequently bought the whole series (via Amazon of course!) The novels of Donna Leon are exceptionally arresting, a truly wonderful read,entertaining and with scarily realistic endings, highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a 'crimi'.

Impossible to demur from the comments of other reviewers here, except perhaps from Professor Mitchell's revelation of too much of the plot and his down-playing of the dénouement (so strongly felt that he seems to have published it twice).

Donna Leon's books quite simply inhabit Venice. Those of us who know it only superficially find it easy to recognise and by the end feel we understand the city and its customs and hidden corners a little better. If we have never dropped in at that little bar for a coffee and a brioche, we can be sure we will spot it next time and not pass by.

The crime, of course, is intriguing enough to keep the reader turning pages but the pleasure is the setting in which it is wrapped: the place and the people. Above all, the people. Commissario Brunetti has few rivals in detective fiction for the way in which his character emerges through myriad small details. The reader sees him at work and at home, with strengths and weaknesses in both, but they are indivisible halves of the same man. If one were the victim of a crime, one would be fortunate indeed to have Brunetti on the case.

The Commissario alone would guarantee Donna Leon's rightful place among the best of her peers, but there are other subtle virtues not to be overlooked. In passing, Death in a Strange Country airs thoughtful views on immigration, on corruption, and on polution of the planet. And all this with a beautifully understated sense of humour.

At one point, Paola Brunetti makes a risotto for her husband. "He took two forkfuls, sighed in appreciation, and continued to eat ... Paola saw that he had passed beyond the point of hunger and was eating for the pleasure of the act ..." Contemplating the long list of Donna Leon's other titles, one experiences a similar sensation.

This is another of Donna Leon's wonderful books based in Venice which defy simplistic classification. It is beautifully written, and can be appreciated on several levels. It is concerned with international intrigue tied into Maffiosi corruption, but the private life of her honest policeman is fascinating. For anyone who has any knowledge of, and love for, Venice this book is unmissable.

Although this is the second book in the series to feature Inspector Guido Brunetti situated in Venice, it is my first; and I didn't know what I'd let myself into when I swapped this for another book. On the strength of this book alone, it seems I have to read a further 15 or so such novels. That's good! This one, originally published in 1993 doesn't really show its age - perhaps now and again references to events which may seem outdated now but, even so, this is a very accomplished crime thriller.

Venice is beautifully described - again, twenty years ago - and the author captures the essence of both the city and the people so much so that the reader is absorbed into the settings without really noticing the transportation.

As with most 'Inspectors' Brunetti has little time for his superiors and even less time for the Americans presently sequestered (at that time) on their territory where, as most of us know, they establish a base and assume it is then part of America. Unfortunately, since a murder of an American takes place in Venice, Brunetti has to deal with the pesky Americans - and, as more or less is de rigeur in Italy - a very large, in many senses, construction boss quietly dumping stuff which he shouldn't in and around the Italian countryside.

The story works well, there are sidelines which develop of their own accord, just as in real life and they reach a sufficiently rewarding finale. For once, it seems, Brunetti takes the murder of another American as a personal affront and, here too, the outcome is satisfying as best it can be.

I'm a newcomer to Brunetti and his family and, indeed, Venice but I look forward eagerly to following his progress in later books.

Product arrived in really good condition quickly. The story itself was up to Donna Leon's excellent standard with Guido Brunetti in a subtle but menacing situation, plus the ususal Italian authorities more concerned with politcs than the law abiding folk.

For the first time in my life I found a detective novel that is not only fine book to amuse, but also to think. Of course there are hundreds of other - more famous writers. From Agatha Christie to Patricia Cornwell. But the world of Leon and her hero commisario Brunetti is different. You got Venice and you feel it. And the book is marvelous. You won't got easy endings. Because in the end crime is punished but wins. And Brunetti is a winner but losses. This is real world not just a mystery. It's life. It's literature.