Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10280 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Synopsis
When Commissario Brunetti is summoned to the hospital bedside of a senior paediatrician whose skull has been brutally fractured, he is confronted with more questions than answers. Three men burst into the doctor's apartment in the middle of the night, attacked him and took his 18-month-old son - but why? As he investigates, Brunetti finds infertility, desperation, and babies for sale. Meanwhile, Inspector Vianello uncovers a scam between pharmacists and doctors in the city. And certain information about one's neighbours can lead to all kinds of corruption and all sorts of pain...Donna Leon's new novel is as subtle and gripping as ever, set in a beautifully realised Venice, seething with small-town malice.

Customer Reviews

You win some you lose some
I like the writing of Donna Lean. It's extremely evocative of Venice, and I feel comfortable in the company of her detective Commissario Brunetti. Her style of writing is fluent and enjoyable, her plots well thought out and intriguing. Normally! Perhaps she was having an "off period" while she was writing "Suffer the little Children", perhaps she was distracted by something, but it is not up to the usual standard. I'd be hard put to, to give a reason, but for me it just didn't seem to work. It somehow felt awkward and ill fitting, if indeed a book can be ill fitting. Read this novel by all means, but don't make it your first excursion into the world of Brunetti.

Biased and grossly inaccurate
I began reading this book upon advice of a friend, and I was terribly disappointed: many times I was tempted to dump it, and I reached the end in the (vain) hope of a coup-de-theatre that never came.

Ms Leon has a very limited knowledge of Italian history and criminal laws. At the same time, she has lots of prejudices and doesn't hesitate to recur to lies and slander in order to justify them.

For instance, it is obvious that she doesn't like the military. That may be one of the reasons that made her hero Brunetti a member of civilian Polizia and not of military Carabinieri. To substantiate her dislike for Carabinieri, Ms Leon repeatedly questions their competence as an institution and has no problem in trying to ridicule them with a cartoonish description of a Captain wearing riding boots during a criminal police operation (total nonsense: even if Carabinieri officers are perfectly legitimated to wear riding boots, being all mounted officers, they are bound by explicit fragmented orders to wear the prescribed uniform for each and every operation they are involved into. A Carabinieri Captain leading a programmed criminal police operation wearing riding boots makes sense more or less like a Grenadiers Guard guarding Buckingham Palace with only his Government Issued underwear on). In her prejudice (soldiers = Fascists) Ms Leon reaches the point of stating (through Brunetti) that too many Carabinieri love acting "as Mussolini were still in power and no one to say them nay", willingly or unwillingly ignoring the fact that Mussolini used for his repression (besides his own Black Shirts) Brunetti's Polizia, and not the Carabinieri of which he never had the loyalty, which was unquestionably devoted to the King.

Moral relativism and double standard permeate the whole novel. Ms Leon deftly manipulates her readers, making them sympathize with people who broke the law or their vows/obligations with their spouses/partners, disdaining those who unveil their wrongdoings. The ultimate villain of the novel is someone who has dared to stick his nose into the personal data of some less-than-virtuous persons, informing the victims of their bad actions. Wow, what a criminal! More or less like a person who, seeing a burglar breaking into a house, calls the police. Poor burglar! How can he work if people (some religious zealots, undoubtedly) instead than minding their own business have to intrude in his life making it harder than it already is? Ms Leon should move to Sicily, where her love for Omertà, for the "code of silence" would be much appreciated.

All Ms Leon's prejudices float in the usual and trite collection of oversimplified generalisations on Italy: nothing works, everything and everybody is corrupted, all TVs belongs to one man, the media are not independent, everybody is on a permanent strike, Northerners are racists, all cities but Venice are stuck in an everlasting traffic jam, the Church controls everything with a Mafia-like grip, several new Saints are made daily, football players are constantly arrested, and so on and so forth. The only good things in Italy are food, Commissario Brunetti and, of course, Venice (which should be dismantled and rebuilt in some Eastern European country, like Bosnia or Bulgaria, to save it from those barbaric Italians. At least, Eastern Europeans appreciate it...) If a similar picture was given on any developing country, Ms Leon would immediately be labelled as a hardcore, dyed-in-the-wool racist. But against Italy and the US (which - even having nothing to do with the novel - are repeatedly lashed upon) all is fair, right?

Donna Leon Triumphs Once Again!
Attacking corruption seems to be a favorite theme of Donna Leon. And along the way, there's usually a murder or two to solve. And in the case of her latest Commassario Guido Brunetti thriller, Leon is, once again, on target.

This time the venerable Venice police officer is confronted with the issue of illegal child adoption practices and the accompanying ramifications therein. As in the previous 15 Brunetti novels, Leon looks at her home city and addresses one or more of its myriad problems, social and otherwise. Still, this series is not about Venice, which she loves, but those characters and issues that attack the sheer beauty and even moral turpitude of the Pearl of the Adriatic.

In "Suffer the Little Children," Brunetti early on is called to the hospital after learning that one of its doctors has been beaten almost to death by a police team, which had stormed the doctor's home and, aside from the beating, had taken the doctor's 18-month old son, which, as it turns out, is an adopted son. Thus the plot kicks into a higher gear. Brunetti learns, from his various sources and own initiative that adopting children is not only a lucrative business but also highly illegal in some circumstances. The ramifications of such adoptions, of course, is wide open. A second running issue in the book is the investigation of a pharmacy-doctor scam that seems to be widespread.
With Brunetti's ace team (Signorina Eletra and Sgt. Vianello, especially), the cases eventually come to a conclusion. Of course, as is usual for a Leon book, the endings are not always satisfying to the reader who is looking for the "happily ever after" approach. Brunetti (and Leon) do not solve the corruption and other socially significant issues, as, of course, these issues continue right along, but they do work on "justice, one person at a time." The murderer usually pays for his (or her) crime. Leon, though, says she's not about to give up on Venice, but sometimes "political corruption is simply a way of life there."

Leon's Brunetti series is first rate, beginning with "Death at La Fenice." (She's a big fan of opera.) Leon's sharp narrative skills, fast-paced plots, and incredible character development are always great reads. In "Suffer the Little Children," however, the book seems to be rushed and Leon doesn't take the time to explore further her central characters (they are all gold mines!), although she perhaps feels that the previous books have said enough. Fast-paced is one thing, but "rushed" is another and in this one, more time and deliberations should have been devoted. She says she's already finished the next Brunetti and is "thinking about" the one after that--news that will make her legions of fans happy!