Title: Death in a Strange Country
Author: Donna Leon
Series: Commissario Brunetti #2
3.5 stars
From Goodreads: Early one morning Guido Brunetti, Commissario of the Venice Police, confronts a grisly sight when the body of a young man is fished out of a fetid Venetian canal. All the clues point to a violent mugging, but for Brunetti, robbery seems altogether too convenient a motive. Then something very incriminating is discovered in the dead man’s flat – something which points to the existence of a high-level cabal – and Brunetti becomes convinced that somebody, somewhere, is taking great pains to provide a ready-made solution to the crime …
My Thoughts
I read book one of this long running series back in the summer of 2022 when I was staying on the Island of Murano. When I go back to read this series I am transported back to the beautiful city of venice and its islands. I can picture all the movement Guido makes around the city which just makes these little mysteries a bit more emersive.
Even though this book is now quite dated first being published in 1993 it still stands the test of time. There are some views that are out of date politically, the main story is unaffected. There were a number of moments where Guido was exposed to American culture outside of venice and that did date it quite a bit as you can now find these american brands across the world not just tucked into ameriacan overseas bases. The mystery itself was interesting. It was interesting to get out of venice and see more of the surrounding area and how the various police forces communicate.
The only thing is the ending is rather unsatisfing. The mystery isn’t really resolved fully at least not enough to give me a sense of closure. I wish there was a little more substance to it overall. A lot of the impact seemed to be felt by those that were not close to the plot so it happened ‘off screen’ and that was a little disappointing.
Overall I am liking this series they are great stories to just spend an afternoon reading. There is a really good balance to them between the dark and the light of the investigation and life in Venice.
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