DRAWING CONCLUSIONS - Guido Brunetti Series No. 20

by Donna Leon - just released in hardcover and eBook

Commissario Guido Brunetti has been called to the apartment of Costanza Altavilla, a widow whose neighbor found her dead in her apartment.  The medical examiner has ruled that a heart attack was the cause of death, but there are marks on Signora Altavilla's body that suggest something worse.  Although it's not an authorized investigation, Brunetti cannot rest until he finds out if there was foul play. 

After questioning Altavilla's neighbors and son, Brunetti discovers that Signora Altavilla has been providing shelter to battered women, as well as visiting people in a nursing home.  Brunetti and Inspector Vianello are further assisted in their investigation by Signorina Elettra, the assistant to Guido's superior, Vice-Questore Patta. 

Ms. Leon gives the reader a glimpse of Italian life and the political system through the eyes of her protagonist.  Brunetti is a happy, complex man, despite his struggles with his superior and his conscience when accepting information gleaned illegally by the ever resourceful Signorina Elettra. 

Buoyed by his love for his family and the City of Venice, Ms. Leon brilliantly paints Brunetti with a cynical brush while maintaining his humanity and love of beauty.  Intelligent and insightful, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS is another wonderful book in the Brunetti series. 

ISBN 978-0-8021-1979-7
260 pages

HOUSE DIVIDED, A Joe DeMarco Thriller

by Mike Lawson - to be released July 2011

Although the National Security Agency was caught wiretapping U.S. citizens without warrants and the government called a halt to this practice, it doesn't mean it's not still happening.  If anything, it's now handled more clandestinely.

NSA, still operating illegally, records what seems to be a rogue military group murdering two Americans.  Since they're not supposed to be working without warrants, they can't do anything with the information they've uncovered without  finding another way to disclose what happened. 

Enter Joe DiMarco, a fixer for the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  When Paul Russo is the victim of what appears to be a random murder, the FBI quickly takes the case away from the police.  Joe DiMarco is pulled into Russo's murder because he's a distant cousin. 

The more DiMarco delves into Russo's life and tries to settle Russo's affairs, the more convinced he is that everything is wrong with the picture the FBI is painting of Russo.  When he learns that Russo stumbled upon some very damaging information about high level military personnel and with the Speaker out of commission, DiMarco follows the trail all the way to the top as the bodies pile up.  As DiMarco tracks the people involved, members of the NSA are tracking him, leading to an explosive ending.

HOUSE DIVIDED is a good political thriller.

GONE

by Mo Hayder - to be released in February 2011

Det. Jack Caffery is called out for a carjacking case when he discovers there was an eleven year old girl in the car at the time. With very few leads, he and his team are doing everything possible to find young Martha when there's another carjacking and this one also includes a young girl.

Police diver Flea Marley has had some serious problems which led to an estrangement from Jack. Because of her lack of leadership Flea's group has become disorganized and disjointed. Pulling herself and her team together, they start their own investigation into the carjackings hoping to not only find the missing girls but to also prove their dedication and improve her team's reputation.

When the "jacker" starts sending notes to the families of the missing girls the police realize this is a much different crime. As they find themselves racing to try to rescue the girls as well as prevent more kidnappings, they realize that the kidnapper knows exactly what they're doing and what their next moves will be. Caffery finds himself even more emotionally involved with the families because of the disappearance of his brother many years ago.

Since I had never read anything by Ms. Hayder before, it felt like this was a sequel to another of her books and that the background between Jack and Flea was missing. It took quite a while for all of the bits and pieces of the cause of the tension between them to surface, which made the story drag a little.

I liked this book and I enjoyed reading it but I'd recommend that you start with the previous Mo Hayder book so that you'd have the proper background for the protagonists' relationships.

A QUESTION OF BELIEF - Guido Brunetti Series No. 19

by Donna Leon - available in hardcover

A friend has delivered a folder to Commissario Guido Brunetti that shows that someone might be deliberately delaying court cases to effect the outcomes. Also, his colleague, Inspector Lorenzo Vianello, has brought concerns about his aunt's recent interest in psychics to Brunetti and asks for his help.

Even the energy for crime seems to be wilting under the heat of a typical Venice summer, but murder has abruptly disrupted Brunetti's vacation plans to escape the heat and leave the city before the annual influx of tourists.

Although they have very different writing styles and are set in different areas of Italy, Leon's books echo the same frustration with Italian politics and corruption as those written by another favorite Italian author of mine, Andrea Camilleri. Despite what the police think or may be able to prove, in Italy it doesn't always follow that any of the criminals will actually be prosecuted for their crimes.

If you haven't read any of the Brunetti books by Donna Leon, you should. They're intelligent and they give the reader a glimpse into the roles the government and the Church play in Italian life.