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Editorial Review:
Donna Leon’s engaging books have been the cheapest way to travel to Italy for quite some time -- and her legion of admirers know that the Venice of her protagonist Commissario Brunetti is a wonderful destination for the crime fiction lover. Leon, an American expat who now lives in la Serenissima (with such luminaries as opera singer Cecilia Bartoli as one of her friends) has gone native – in no uncertain terms. Her knowledge of Brunetti’s water-logged beat is transmuted into vivid and evocative narratives: the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge are often the dark passageways to another, darker Italy, where hidden (and not-so-hidden) corruption – in politics and daily life – is very much an everyday thing (as headlines in the papers – not just in Donna Leon’s books –remind us on a daily basis).
The Girl of his Dreams demonstrates how much life is left in the Leon/Brunetti criminal world. A child’s body is found floating near some steps on the Grand Canal – it is that of a dead girl. But there have been no reports of missing children -- and the search for the identity of the youthful victim and her family takes Brunetti to many varied destinations, including a Gypsy encampment on the mainland, and (eventually), he turns up some very nasty secrets. As ever, it’s not just the villains who thwart Brunetti at every turn – it’s the venality and clandestine nature of the establishment that hampers him, almost as a matter of course.
This is Leon on effortless form – Brunetti fans need not hesitate. --Barry Forshaw
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A 175 page story crammed in to 275! Having waited keenly for the next 'Guido Brunetti' to appear, I read the dust cover summary and made a start soon after publication. 90 pages in, I was wondering if the publishers had made some sort of printing error - the dead girl had not yet been found in the Canal and the religious fraudster seemed to be going nowhere. It is only on page 100 that the real story begins and the original story is only mentioned again, as an apparent afterthought, towards the conclusion.
Ms Leon could have published... more info
A satisfying read As always, with Donna Leon books, this is not just a detective novel, albeit a good one, but an evocation of modern-day Venice and a further instalment of the happy family life of Commissario Brunetti. The latter sets Leon's books apart from many other crime novels. She has also created a number of other characters who really come alive on the page such as Brunetti's wife, Paola; the computer wizard of a secretary Signorina Electra, who can find out anything about anybody, and the vanities of the lazy chief... more info
A little disappointing.... As an unashamed Venetophile and a lover of good mysteries I find Leon's books simply irresistable. I first stumbled upon them in England and for a time I had to send there for copies of her latest works because they were unobtainable in Canada. Fortunately that is no longer the case.
I have just devoured her latest: The Girl of his Dreams - and although I was fully absorbed from the beginning, at the very end I was left with something of a feeling of disappointment.
The initial story about a... more info
Local Color . . And Little Else of Interest
Before writing my review, I waited two days after reading The Girl of His Dreams to see if I liked the book any better after sleeping on it. I didn't. Sorry, Ms. Leon. This one's a clunker. Why? Of two cases, only one is interesting. And the investigation of the interesting one isn't very stimulating. This book will only appeal to those who enjoy thinking about the injustices that victims experience. As the book opens, crime seems to have taken a holiday in Venice and Commissario Guido Brunetti... more info
