Product Description

A luminous spring day in Venice, and Commissario Brunetti and his sidekick Vianello play hooky from the Questura along the Grand Canal to rescue Vianello's friend Marco, who has been arrested during an environmental protest. They get him released, only to be faced by the fury of the man's father-in-law, who owns a glass factory on Murano. The old man is seething with rage, and his daughter shares her fear with Brunetti that he will actually harm her husband. But it is not Marco who has uncovered the guilty secret of the glass foundries, nor he whose body is found lying in front of the furnaces which burn at 1400 degrees Celsius, night and day. The victim has left clues in a copy of Dante, and Brunetti must enter an inferno to discover who is poisoning the land and fouling the waters of Venice's lagoon. A man is dead - but will politics and expedience prevent the killer from striking again?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287892 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Released on: 2006-04-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Do the following two things appeal to you? A holiday in Venice, away from the tourist traps, investigating the city's more unusual nooks and crannies? Or trying (by proxy) to solve a particularly mystifying crime case with a variety of intriguing suspects? Well, you don't need either the money the first would require or the police qualifications the latter might need, if you merely shell out the modest outlay for Donna Leon's Through a Glass Darkly, the latest in her always assured Commissario Brunetti novels.

Admirers of these books need no recommendation: they have been amazingly consistent in their development over the years, and have rarely slipped into the overfamiliar--there's no sense that Donna Leon is tired of either Brunetti or his battles with municipal and governmental corruption.

It's spring in Venice, and Commissario Brunetti and his associate Vianello undertake a task not officially sanctioned by the Questura--they will try to do what they can for Vianello’s friend Marco, an eco-activist who has been arrested after an environmental protest turns ugly. Soon after, Brunetti witnesses the almost psychotic enmity of Marco's father-in-law, who almost seems prepared to murder his relative (a fear that Marco's wife shares). The old man's glass factory on Murano, the source of the conflict between father and son-in-law, becomes the scene for a murder: in front of the furnaces which eternally burn at high temperatures, a body is found and Brunetti’s search for the killer is aided by clues found in a volume of Dante.

All of the customary Leon fingerprints are satisfyingly in place here: the sultry and immensely vivid evocation of Venice; the ever-present pall of evil and corruption that suffuses the beauty of the city, and (most pleasurably of all) the careful delineation of character in Brunetti and his associates. This is a series that has a long time to run yet.

--Barry Forshaw

Review
"* 'Donna Leon's very successful Commissario Brunetti novels, set in Venice.... It would be simply perverse not to acknowledge the skill with which Leon has assembled these familiar elements... The reader comes to look forward to Paola's elegant Venetian lunches as much as Brunetti does...Comfort reading of the highest order.' TLS * 'The fabulous Donna Leon' Antonia Fraser in the Spectator * '[Leon's] passion for all things Venetian - churches, palaces, statues and especially the food - comes over loud and clear whenever Brunetti steps from his apartment into the street... No one writes about the grey areas of life better.' Guardian * 'Donna Leon has a wonderful feel for the hidden evils that lie below the facade of the magical city' The Times"

From the Publisher
The wonderful new Commissario Brunetti mystery, from the Silver Dagger winner Donna Leon, an author who continues to go from strength to strength.

Customer Reviews

Springtime, Dante, and Glass Making Lore!
Donna Leon's fifteenth mystery is set on the island of Murano where her hero, Commissario Guido Brunetti, investigates a murder at a glass furnace there. Prior to the murder, Brunetti started snooping around Murano because of suspicion that one of the factory owners may be out to do bodily harm to his son-in-law, an environmental activist and good friend of Brunetti's sidekick, Vianello.

Leon writes her novels in the third person, and thus, almost everything is seen through Brunetti's thoughts and judgments. Through Brunetti's eyes, we experience a wonderful springtime in Venice and superb descriptions of glassware and the age-old art of glass making. Leon has done a lot of research for this book which is a primer on glass making lore and the operation of the factories on Murano. There is also biting social commentary on the effects of industrial pollution on the lagoon by not only the glass factories but also by the chemical and oil industries in nearby Margera. As is often the case, the murderer is motivated by Leon's old standbys--vanity, greed, and lust for power.

In a less serious vain, we get to enjoy selections from Dante's Inferno, the antics of Signorina Elletra, the stupidity of Vice-Questore Patta, and the usual immersion in Italian language, food, and culture.

Leon introduced a new character in this book--Paolo Foa. He is the boat pilot for the Questura and plays a key role in the solution of the crime. Foa replaces Bonsuan who was killed in book ten. He's an interesting guy and hopefully will appear in future books.

Leon "illumlinates" once more in thrilling style!
Sometimes, it's best not to work "by the books." Thus, with spring fever permeating the Pearl of the Adriatic, Commissario Guido Brunetti and team begin an investigative adventure on their own, or at least one not officially sanctioned.

In Donna Leon's latest Brunetti novel ("Through a Glass Darkly"), we find the Commissario once again keeping his eyes peeled for Venetian crimes, especially of corruption, social injustice, and, of course, murder.

His assistant Vianello introduces Brunetti to a friend who's just been arrested for protesting on the island of Murano against environmental pollution. It's a simple matter and the friend Marco is soon released; however, this sets the whole story in motion: a story of corruption and, yes, murder. It's not until the murder, of course, that the police become officially involved.

Marco's father-in-law, who clearly hates Marco, is an owner of one of Murano's famous glass factories. The enmity lies, perhaps, in the fact that Marco is an environmental engineer and is clearly against unlawful pollution of the laguna. The rabid, aging father-in-law is a bully who's clearly out of control, or as Vianello observes he "a choleric man."

Complications arise and Leon is up to her usual level of brilliance in handling first rate police procedurals. An employee of the glass factory is found dead and, as Brunetti suspects, it's a suspicious death. The employee has been most vocal about the hazards of the factory, environmentally, and blames his daughter's tragic illness on the pollution.

Painstakingly, even cleverly, Brunetti and his team at the Questura bring the case to a close and once again Leon's literary magic prevails. Aside from her general plot outlines, Leon's greatest strength seems to lie in her ability to provide great depth to her characters, especially Brunetti, a police officer at once intrepid and all the time human, a man in a profession where integrity is not always a given. Each of the Leon episodes in this series provides additional depth to him and his family. And Leon`s pointed observations of the city and how it's run ("The matter lapsed, merging into the stream of gossip that flowed through Venice, much of it no cleaner than the water that flowed in the canals.") makes one wonder if the Italians actually read her books. Still, it's clear that she loves her overseas home (who wouldn't?) but, a bit like Cassandra outside the gates of Troy, her cries of corruption and incompetence seem largely to go unheeded!

In this 15th episode, we find that the author keeps the series open, and we can only hope she'll pick up the pace. Will it really be another year before her next Brunetti novel?

Poor plot, good atmosphere
This is the first Brunetti I have read and judging by other reviews of Leon's books, I may not have picked the best one to start with. I enjoyed the evocation of Venice and the portrayal of Brunetti himself but thought the plot was pretty thin & never got going. The denouement was in keeping with this. I quite enjoyed it & will read another Brunetti but would not rush to recommend this one.