Call number
Collections
Genres
Publication
Description
Brunetti is forced to confront the price of loyalty, to his past and in his work, as a seemingly innocent request leads him into troubling waters. What role can or should loyalty play in the life of a police inspector? It's a question Commissario Guido Brunetti must face and ultimately answer in Give Unto Others, Donna Leon's splendid 31st installment of her acclaimed Venetian crime series. Brunetti is approached for a favor by Elisabetta Foscarini, a woman he knows casually, but her mother was good to Brunetti's mother, so he feels obliged to at least look into the matter privately, and not as official police business. Foscarini's son-in-law, Enrico Fenzo, has alarmed his wife (her daughter) by confessing their family might be in danger because of something he's involved with. Since Fenzo is an accountant, Brunetti logically suspects the cause of danger is related to the finances of a client. Yet his clients seem benign: an optician, a restaurateur, a charity established by his father-in-law. However, when his friend's daughter's place of work is vandalized, Brunetti asks his own favors - that his colleagues Claudia Griffoni, Lorenzo Vianello, and Signorina Elettra Zorzi assist his private investigation, which soon enough turns official as they uncover the dark and Janus-faced nature of a venerable Italian institution. Exploring the wobbly line between the criminal and non-criminal, revealing previously untold elements of Brunetti's past, Give Unto Others shows that the price of reciprocity can be steep.… (more)
User reviews
I received a digital review copy of "Give unto Others: Commissario Brunetti 31" by Donna Leon from Grove Atlantic through NetGalley.com.
It began as a collaborative non-official investigation into an old acquaintance's family matter at that person's request to Brunetti. Until it became
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press via NetGalley. Thank you!
That said, any book by Leon with her lovely descriptions of Venice make for a pleasant literary vacation.
Thank
The daughter of a former neighbor who had been good friends with his mother and his family when he was a child stopped at Commissaraio Guide Brunetti’s office. Her family had lived in a large apartment in the building where his father was the handyman. They lived in a small, basement apartment.
She thought her daughter was in danger and was suspicious of her son-in-law, an accountant. Brunetti wondered or not they should take the case because he was asked to because of their former relationship, not because it was or might be a criminal matter.
If he asked about the son-in-law, the story would spread like an infection. Gathering information: “Long before computer chips could collect someone’s personal data, their neighbors did. The neighbors and friends knew the reasons..., while the chips could provide only written records. “Sooner or later, it would pass to a person who was peculiarly at risk from the disease. Some were struck down; others paid legal doctors to find a cure.”
As Brunetti observes, solving this case is like playing a pinball machine with information being bounced all around while trying to score as many points as possible.
While fraud is the basis of the case, the vandalism of the daughter’s veterinary hospital gives probability to the danger.
In addition, Signorina Elettra’s desk was being bugged.
As usual, Donna Leon’s story plot moves smoothly and gently. The characters are believable and familiar. The ending is not predictable.
Tidbit: People claimed to believe in things because they had learned them long ago, even if they no longer believed in them but had nothing else to believe in.
It is a calm novel - Venice is still recovering from the pandemic, the tourists had not come back yet (which is both a relief and a concern for a city which relies on them) and the author chose to spend a lot more time in Brunetti's head than usual - we get details about his past (some we knew, some we did not from previous novels), we get his usual musings on the economy and Venice, we get more details than had become usual for the series about his family and their life. In a way, the book is too calm - it is not a thriller under any definition, it is barely a mystery. And yet, it works. I am not sure it can work as a standalone - most of the strong moments came from the connections to past novels and from knowing everyone. While the Brunetti novels can rarely work if you remove him and Venice, this one is especially impossible without them - even the crimes when they finally are revealed are Italian and Venetian and while not impossible elsewhere, won't work if removed to somewhere else. And their resolution needed the Brunetti style in more than one way - the imperfect Commissario who knows who he is and what he can (and cannot do) and who is first and foremost a Venetian.
A nice entry to a long running series - and now waiting on Leon to write the next one. Again.
Ah, the tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive. It was very entertaining to watch as the frauds are exposed and the ramifications.
Not one of her best, but still good to see Guido in action.
I found this latest Brunetti novel less satisfactory than most of the series books that precede it. First of all, it’s not a homicide investigation. Secondly, Brunetti has had back-of-his-mind worries about his team’s unorthodox investigations throughout most of the series without these fears being realized, so why would it be any different this time? The tension feels exaggerated. The main thing this book accomplishes is to show that
“What role can or should loyalty play in the life of a police inspector? It’s a question Commissario Guido Brunetti must face and ultimately answer in Give Unto Others, Donna Leon’s splendid 31st installment of her acclaimed Venetian crime series.”
A brilliant philosophical puzzle.
Every title in this highly acclaimed series focuses on a general malady/issue/problem/crime and in every title Guido Brunetti uses logic, reason and philosophy to ‘solve’ the problem and find some sliver of justice or accountability.
We are on Book #31 now (31 out of 32 titles with #33 to be published in July 2024).
Issues/problems/crimes include, but are not limited to, stalking, the treatment of women, senility & dementia, medical issues, criminality, deceit, pollution, the environment, theft, corruption, wealth, water, safety, human trafficking, fishing, greed, jealousy, academia, opera, immigrants, military academies, religion, accounting, charity scams, police & policing methods, & computer hacking.
a superb title and superb series *****