Product Description

At a dinner party given by his parents-in-law, Commissario Brunetti meets Franca Marinello, the wife of a prosperous Venetian businessman. He's charmed - perhaps too charmed, suggests his wife Paola - by her love of Virgil and Cicero, but shocked by her appearance. A few days later, Brunetti is visited by Carabinieri Maggior Filippo Guarino from the nearby city of Marghera. As part of a wider investigation into Mafia takeovers of businesses in the region, Guarino wants information about the owner of a trucking company who was found murdered in his office. He believes the man's death is connected to the illegal transportation of refuse - and more sinister material - in his company's trucks. No stranger to mutual suspicion and competition between rival Italian police departments, Brunetti is nevertheless puzzled by the younger man's paranoid behaviour. Eventually Guarino agrees to email a photo of his suspect, but by the time the photograph arrives, he himself is dead. Was he killed because he got too close? And why is it that Franca Marinello has often been seen in company of the suspect, a vulgar man with Mafia connections and a violent past? Donna Leon's new novel is as subtle, gripping and topical as ever, bringing the sights, sounds and smells of Venice flooding to life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6622 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Does the idea of a trip to Italy appeal to you? Do you want something a little less anodyne than strolling in the Mediterranean sun and consuming too much pasta and vino? Do you hanker, perhaps, to experience a touch of the corruption that most Italians wryly admit is endemic to much to their country’s superstructure? The American crime writer Donna Leon, then, is the perfect travel agent for you. She has given readers metaphorical passports to her adopted country for quite some time now, and her Commissario Brunetti novels are one of the glories of the current crime fiction scene. In her new book, About Face, a police associate of Brunetti, Guarino, leads the Commissario into a dangerous imbroglio: Mafia influence over businesses in the Marghera district is growing ever stronger, and when the MD of a trucking firm is killed in his offices, Brunetti's colleague concludes that the murder is tied into to the clandestine transportation of refuse. But things are complicated when Brunetti observes that Guarino is behaving in a very strange, atypical fashion – and the resourceful copper has multiple mysteries on his hands.

In the Brunetti universe, insidious double-dealing spreads its tendrils into every aspect of Italian society, but there is always a glimmer of hope, usually represented by Donna Leon’s intelligent and tenacious copper. Commissario Guido Brunetti is the man to root out the evils of his often benighted society. About Face is not, perhaps, Leon at her considerable best – the customary voltage is more muted -- but there’s more then enough Brunetti magic here to keep admirers happy and sated. --Barry Forshaw

Review
`The very first sentences of ABOUT FACE showcase Donna Leon's elegant, effortless style ... another great Brunetti outing. [Leon] combines the minutiae of daily life in Venice with pitch-perfect descriptions of police procedure, the now-familiar rhythms of Brunetti's home life with a ferocious knowledge of literature, delivered - how else? - with a sure, yet light, touch ... The details of home-cooked meals and family arguments, alongside a never-ending flow of crime, add depth to Leon's stories and are what makes her characters so believable and, in turn, her books so readable.' --Independent

Review
`Super sleuth Brunetti again patrols Venice's dark canal ways in this Italian crimefest. Once again, Brunetti proves he's more than a match for the local mob.'

Customer Reviews

Donna Leon - About Face
Great stuff. About Face has everything you'd want from a Donna Leon novel: enchanting descriptions and ruminations of and on the city of Venice, a morally shady picture of policework and politics, and the beautiful respite of the happy family life of Brunetti. As ever, the writing is sly and subtle, and funny. And the most amusing scenes to be found are, as ever, those which feature the cunning interactions between Brunetti, his superiors and his subordinates. This time Brunetti is asked by the military arm of the police, the carabinieri, to help locate a possible suspect in a nearby robbery and murder, in which the owner of a trucking company was killed, who seems to have connections with the city. At first Brunetti takes against his Carabineri contact, but latterly warms to him as the two open up to each other. The man hints that the killing may have something to do with the transportation and disposal of illegal waste (hospital, pharmaceutical, chemical, etc), and suggests a possible mafia connection. Brunetti reluctantly agrees to make enquiries. But, of course, before too long things take a far more sinister turn as a much fresher body turns up.

About Face is a superb entry in Leon's wonderful series. I enjoyed every page of it and the ease with which she writes. Existing fans will love it, as should fans of intelligent but not overly taxing mysteries. Everything here is of a very fine standard indeed, but they read very easily. It is, I think, even one of her absolute best, and the ending should even satisfy those among her reader's who dislike her tendency to ambiguous, messy endings, as here you get the impression that, while it ends unclearly, everything important is revealed at the same time. This series is one of the yearly joys of mdoern crime fiction.

Superb return to form
I hadn't enjoyed the last two novels in Donna Leon's Brunetti series as much as others however am delighted that About Face conjures up all the elements of the best of her other writings. After meeeting a charming aristocratic Venetian lady who shares his loves of classical writing, Brunetti becomes involved in an investigation into the illegal dumping of chemicals. Leon draws the two strands of her plot together brilliantly leading to a climax that is exciting and well-developed.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Brunetti novel without the superb cast. His long-suffering wife, obsessed by Henry James, and cooking up delicious sounding meals; his aristocratic in-laws; his vain boss, Patta, who Brunetti delights in manipulating; the colourful efficient Signorina Elettra and of course Vianello, his trusty sidekick. Once you have read a number of the novels, you look forward to the reappearance of each of these figures.
Yet this novel, like many of the others, makes a serious social point, exploring Leon's concern about the damage to the environment caused by illegal dumping of hazardous waste and corruption. Her knowledge and understadning of the machinations of the society she is exploring give the novel an authenticity that underpins the beautifully constructed characterisation.

Just as good as the last one
Donna Leon's Brunetti books are so well written I always approach a new one with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Will it live up to her own high standards? This latest instalment does not disappoint. Brunetti as ever has to balance his own private ethics against the reality of the corrupt society which is Venice.

In this story Donna Leon attacks the disposal of toxic waste. This is always going to be a problem in a city built on water but here we get glimpses of how this problem affects the rest of the country. As ever Brunetti's wife - Paola - plays a substantial part behind the scenes making her husband question his principles. The usual characters are here - Signorina Elettra with her knowledge of the back way in to all computer systems; Vice Questore Patta - who is almost more concerned with his own position than the detection of crime and there are all Brunetti's usual police colleagues as well as a member of the Carabineiri who needs Brunetti's help.

Donna Leon's writing is subtle and understated and often it is only after you have read a paragraph that you realise there are many nuances. The books are carefully crafted so that every tiny incident fits into the whole and serves to illuminate every facet of the story. Above all there is Venice - as much a character in the story as any human being. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone who prefers their crime stories without excessive violence and with more depth than the average.