About Face

February 23, 2009
The 18th installment of Leon's wickedly entertaining series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti (after 2008's The Girl of His Dreams
) focuses on garbage, illuminating the author's ongoing concern about the environment. Venice contends with polluted canals and a huge chemical complex. Trash litters Naples' streets. Incinerators in south Italy are full, and trucks laden with toxic waste travel the roads. Brunetti becomes an ecological expert when an investigator with the carabiniere wants him to look into illegal hauling that has resulted in a truck driver's murder. On a personal level, Brunetti's father-in-law asks him to investigate a potential business partner, Maurizio Cataldo. But Brunetti, who's devoted to his wife and children, is more intrigued by Cataldo's much younger second wife, whose once beautiful looks were ruined by a face lift. Leon flawlessly melds the two plot threads as she parallels her characters' vulnerability with that of Venice. 7-city author tour.

February 15, 2009
The stench of corruption that always hangs over Venice grows disconcertingly literal when Commissario Guido Brunetti (The Girl of His Dreams, 2008, etc.) gets a case involving the illegal disposal of toxic waste.

The morning after he spends a night dining with his wife Paola's titled parents and their guests—including most notably La Super Liftata, Franca Marinello, the much younger wife of a well-connected businessman who's trying to entice Conte Orazio Falier to invest money in China—Brunetti is confronted with what seems like a much homelier state of affairs. Maggiore Filipo Guarino, of the Marghera Carabinieri, is looking into the death of Stefano Ranzato, a reluctant police informant from Tessera who was killed by whoever robbed his trucking company, and wants some local help gathering information about his relationship with an unsavory character in San Marcuola. Guarino, who seems convinced that Ranzato's death was no casual slaughter, is just as mysterious in his own way as Franca Marinello, but apart from that Brunetti sees no connection between a scandal concerning the Mafia's infiltration of the waste-disposal business and a charming ex-model with a fondness for Cicero and the world's most grotesque facelift. It's not until a violent climax at the Casinœ that the two halves of the plot come together, and then the connection is more convincing in metaphorical than literal terms.

On the plus side, there are the usual sharp scenes of Brunetti at work and at home, and a surprisingly warm relationship develops between Brunetti and his hitherto remote father-in-law.

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Starred review from April 1, 2009
With her 18th stellar entry in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series, Leon "(Suffer the Little Children)" continues to live up to the increasingly high standards set by each novel. Her latest brings the Venetian policeman into intertwining cases involving dangerous environmental hazards: mounting trash heaps and air and water pollution. As usual, the urbane, overeducated, laconic detective circumvents his self-indulgent, self-centered boss and other department dullards to solve a thorny murder case. Leon not only offers superb plotting and engaging dialog, but also captures the atmosphere of Venetian daily life. Thus, Brunetti enjoys frequent, leisurely meals with his wife and children. Leon's evocation of these meals is so delectable that readers feel as though they are participating in the repasts. For readers of literary mysteries, such as those by Deborah Crombie and Elizabeth George. Highly recommended for all public and university libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 12/08.]Lynne F. Maxwell, Villanova Univ. Sch. of Law Lib., PA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2009
In his eighteenth case, Leon's Venetian commissario Guido Brunetti once again puts human feeling before the need to close cases. And, as always, there are multiple cases to close (or not), each rippling out in many directions, pushing at the lives of both innocent and guilty. It begins with a dinner party at which Brunetti meets a charming and beautiful woman (though, apparently, with a weakness for plastic surgery) who wants to talk about classical Italian Literature. Brunetti is taken by the contradiction, a plastic face shielding a scholar's mind, and finds himself intrigued by the woman's past - conveniently so, it turns out, when his wife's father asks him to make inquiries about the woman's husband, a potential business partner. Meanwhile, a carabiniere investigator needs Brunetti's help in a case involving the illegal hauling of garbage. Soon the investigator is dead, and Brunetti is following the garbage trail to the doorstep of his Ovid-reading dinner partner. The signature elements of any Leon novel are present here - the island-like tranquility of Brunetti's domestic life; his ongoing sparring with his bureaucrat boss - but this time the focus is more on the central stories: the mysterious woman and the garbage scandal. Brunetti tackles environmental malfeasance as he does all other kinds of rampant governmental corruption he encounters, recognizing that full-frontal assaults are never won by individuals against institutions. Instead, he chips away at the edges of the monolith, carving shreds of hope from seeming hopelessness. No wonder we find him such a comforting presence. - Bill Ott