I don’t reflexively reach for traditional mysteries when I’m looking for something to read, but I never turn down a Brunetti mystery. Commissario Guido Brunetti is the brainchild of author Donna Leon, who uses each installment of the series to explore aspects of Venetian culture against the backdrops of the beatific highs and seamy lows of the city, using the eyes and ears of the understated and, yes, underappreciated Brunetti for both. The uninitiated will be surprised to discover that with FALLING IN LOVE, the latest novel in the Brunetti canon, there are 24 installments in the series to date. That daunting number notwithstanding, it is amazingly easy to jump on board with any particular book and work your way backward or forward.

"Leon once again has combined familiar elements with variations on a theme against an exotic backdrop to provide another entertaining installment in one of mystery fiction’s most consistent series."

Leon is masterful at filling in the blanks of the past for newbies while keeping the current story going, and demonstrates this ability with great aplomb in FALLING IN LOVE. Here, she returns to the subject of Venetian opera, which was the setting for DEATH AT LA FENICE, her first Brunetti novel, and renowned soprano Flavia Petrelli. Brunetti and his wife are watching Petrelli’s masterful performance in Tosca as the new book commences. The manifestation of adoration by the audience for her performance is stunning, and wholly appropriate, given the magnitude of her talent. What is waiting for Petrelli back in her dressing room is a stunning exhibit of adoration as well, but is hardly appropriate. More of the same is found at her apartment door when she returns home. It seems that someone has been following her around the world, and leaving expensive and excessive gifts in his anonymous wake.

Over dinner a few nights later, Petrelli turns to her old friend Brunetti for assistance. Always intrigued by a puzzle, Brunetti promises to see what he can do and begins his always thorough investigation. Matters take on a new urgency, though, when a legitimate and potential suitor for Petrelli’s affections is the object of a vicious and unexpected attack. Brunetti realizes that he is dealing with a subject who is a violent obsessive and is determined to make sure that no one else will have Petrelli if he cannot.

Brunetti’s investigation takes him to places that he would not expect, and, as frequently happens in this series, Leon continues to pull back the veil on one of the world’s most exotic cities, revealing aspects of it that few people have seen and that most do not even know exist. It’s not all detective work, either. His family often treats him as an interloper (gently, but still), while he often finds himself at the office having to work around (or over or under or through) Vice-Questore Patta, his less than competent boss. Brunetti is often assisted in the latter of these tasks by the enigmatic Signorina Elettra, Patta’s secretary, who makes sure that the office and its business work and move smoothly, even when Patta is there to obstruct it. Elettra’s ability to ferret out information is first rate, and it is no exaggeration to say that Brunetti (and, yes, the reader) might be lost without her.

Leon once again has combined familiar elements with variations on a theme against an exotic backdrop to provide another entertaining installment in one of mystery fiction’s most consistent series.