Editorial Content for So Shall You Reap: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
I always relish a new mystery in Donna Leon’s series starring Commissario Guido Brunetti. There is no better literary tour guide to Venice and the surrounding landscape than Leon, and each entry provides complex, memorable characters and storylines that touch the moral center of the human spirit.
At the start of SO SHALL YOU REAP, the 32nd and latest installment, Brunetti is busy fussing with the reorganization of his home library on his day off when he gets a call from Ispettore Vianello. Vianello informs him that Alvise, one of their officers, is being held at a police station in Treviso after getting into a scuffle with an officer there during a gay rights rally.
"SO SHALL YOU REAP is authentic throughout and lives up to the lofty reputation that Donna Leon has rightly earned for this series, which never fails to enlighten with each new intriguing mystery."
Brunetti and Vianello are able to smooth things over and get Alvise released without any charges. They were completely unaware that their colleague of 20 years might be gay. It is not a commentary on male ignorance in the workplace, just a testament to how little we may actually know about the people with whom we work closely. Alvise, a single man in his early 50s, is finally comfortable admitting his sexuality to them and talking about his partner.
SO SHALL YOU REAP is full of secrets. The larger case here revolves around the murder of a Sri Lankan man named Inesh, who had been living in Venice for many years. His body is found in the canal, and there are no immediate suspects or motives for this apparently senseless crime. Inesh resided in the garden house of a wealthy older Venetian couple for eight years. All they knew about him was that he was nice, quiet and a devout Buddhist. Inspection of his small residence confirms this as Brunetti does not find much more than a statue of Buddha and a number of books, mostly crime fiction.
A follow-up with the local bookseller confirms that Inesh was a regular customer and reader who preferred mysteries and thrillers to help him better learn the local language and customs. What’s more puzzling, and eventually a concerning part of the investigation, is that Inesh possessed a lot of material regarding real estate, Italian politics and past cases that involved these subjects in a potential criminal light. What interest would a Sri Lankan immigrant have with such matters?
The answers will come from Brunetti diving back into his own days at university. Along with the great help of his team at the Questura, an eye-opening answer to Inesh’s murder presents itself and will force Brunetti to face his own past in an unexpected way.
SO SHALL YOU REAP is authentic throughout and lives up to the lofty reputation that Donna Leon has rightly earned for this series, which never fails to enlighten with each new intriguing mystery.
Teaser
On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice’s canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni and Signora Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle --- random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships --- that appear to have little in common. Until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.
Promo
On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice’s canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni and Signora Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle --- random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships --- that appear to have little in common. Until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.
About the Book
In the 32nd installment of Donna Leon’s bestselling series, a connection to Guido Brunetti’s own youthful past helps solve a mysterious murder.
On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice’s canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Because no official record of the man’s presence in Venice exists, Brunetti is forced to use the city’s far richer sources of information: gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim. Curiously, he had been living in a small house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professor, in which Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim’s interest in Buddhism, the revolutionary Tamil Tigers and the last crop of Italian political terrorists, active in the 1980s.
As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni and Signora Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle --- random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships --- that appear to have little in common, until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.
Audiobook available, read by David Colacci
