Before I begin talking about this excellent mystery, I just want to mention another murder that took place on Sunday night.  What could that be?  Oh yes….that god-awful *thing* masquerading under the name of Mansfield Park.  Honestly.  I don’t want to devote a post to it, but let’s just say that no one should judge the book by that movie.  It makes me long for  Persuasion, and we all know how I felt about that.  Hmph.  I think I’ll stop watching the movies, and just start reading Jane Austen for ninety minutes on a Sunday.  Doesn’t that sound more pleasant?  (Plus, if I have to hear Gillian Anderson’s retarded-and I mean that in its clinical sense, robot introductions one more time I’m going to scream.  Loudly.  So if you suddenly can’t hear the Superbowl commentary, you’ll know why.)

Now, on to more positive things!  Last Friday, I was in the mood for a mystery, and three on my shelves were calling out to me: Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon, Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross (both recommended by Danielle) and The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin.  So, I brought them out to my mom and made her choose.  After she pointed out that they all sounded great, she went with Italy.  And I’m so glad she did!  La Fenice is the first in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series, which is set in modern-day (well, early 90s) Venice.  I happen to know a bit about Venice, and a bit more about La Fenice, because I read City of Falling Angels a couple years ago.  While not my favourite book ever, it did make me interested in Venice (which I’ve also visited, but only on a day trip), so I was very excited to return!  Leon, the author, is an American but according to her bio she’s been living in Italy for a long time so she knows her business.   This book has just enough Italian sprinkled throughout that I was constantly saying words aloud with a very American accent (I’m one of those people who can’t roll their r’s), but not so much that I had no idea what was going on.

Wow-this is turning into one rambling review.  Must be the cold medicine.  I have certain expectations of my mystery series: I expect to love the detective, I expect the writing style to be excellent, I expect the setting to be compelling and if necessary thoroughly reserached, I expect the book to be witty, and I expect it to be ’soft-boiled’ (you know what I mean!).  So while I love mysteries, I have very few favourites series.  But La Fenice fulfilled all of these!  Venice comes alive through the eyes of Brunetti, a native whose parents-in-law happen to be nobles (there’s a fun party scene), and I completely believed it.  The style was great: no reliance on cliches, no moments when I was pulled out of the book because of awkardness or ridiculousness, no dialogue that would never happen in real life.  Even the minor characters are fleshed out!  The wittiness is present throughout: Brunetti’s internal monologue when dealing with his self-absorbed boss are priceless, as are his family interactions (this book is the first I’ve ever read that has a description of a Family Board Game Night and it’s great!).  And it’s definitely not hard-boiled, which is a relief, because that style and I are only friends when Bogart’s involved.  But in addition to all of these, La Fenice surpassed expectations and actually provided a really good mystery.  Usually, I can figure out any twist in a regular book by a third of the way through, and in mystery series I almost always know the killer by the half-way mark.  La Fenice kept me on my toes, though, and while I had figured a few things out, I definitely did not guess the ending.  I can’t remember the last time that happened!

What’s so neat about the book is that in addition to being a mystery, this is also a story of family dynamics.  Take the following passage:

For seventeen years, [Brunetti] had avoided calling his father-in-law anything. He couldn’t use the title, nor could be bring himself to call the man Papa. “Orazio,” his Christian name, was too intimate, a baying at the moon of social equality, So Brunetti struggled on, not calling him anything, not even “Signore.” They did, however, compromise and use the familiar tuform of address with each other, though even that did not fall easily from his lips.

It captures certain relationships so precisely!  Leon’s insight extends to individuals as well.  And here’s Paola, Brunetti’s wife and a literature professor, after a long night of grading:

From the way she scribbled a hasty comment across the bottom of a page, he knew she was about to come to the end of her patience for that night.
“I’m so tired of their blunt minds, Guido,” she said, capping the pen and tossing it down on the table. “I’d almost rather deal with murderers. At least they can be punished.”

I’ve seen that same thought in some of my professors’ eyes, on a particularly bad day of class discussion.

You should definitely go read this book, if you like mysteries, or if you like Italy, or if you like fiction whose characters feel like living, breathing people.  And the nice thing is the series has sixteen books! I know I’m looking forward to getting to know Brunetti and Paola better, along with Venice itself. Thanks Danielle!