No one cuts to the core of human venality better than Donna Leon

I understand the implications of air, water, and earth contamination. I understand the greed of some corporations/governments, etc. This, sadly, is our 21st c reality. I read non-fiction to give me information on such things. I read novels as an ESCAPE from reality. Signora Leon is a better writer than she exhibits in this volume in the Brunetti series. Please return to mysteries and fictional villains, Signora.

Following the familiar formula, but with interesting details. The last two have dealt with water pollution. Guido is progressing from the guy who mocked environmental concerns.

good but not great. A little light on the story more of the characters and the fall of Venice. undercurrents of corruption and greed and terrorizing eco disaster.

A dying widow asks to speak to a police officer, bringing Comissario Guido Brunetti and his colleague, Comissario Claudia Grifonni, to the hospice where the woman awaits death. Her husband died in a motorcycle crash a few weeks earlier, and the widow believes he was killed because he did something "bad" to get money for her end-of-life care. When the woman dies suddenly while Brunetti is at her bedside, he feels compelled to pursue the question, even with no evidence.
Digging into the dead man's life, Brunetti and Griffoni learn he tested water for the the systems that oversee Italy's drinking water. Soon, they suspect he may have uncovered something illicit related to a recent fish kill, and was possibly murdered for what he learned. But how to prove it?
Donna Leon has written again and again about the very large gap between the law and justice in Italy, but you could lift Brunetti's ruminations on these topics and transplant them into almost any nation around the globe. The heroes trying to enforce just laws must choose between arresting truly horrible, immoral people, and prosecuting the very few hapless wrong-doers they might actually be able to convict. It is deeply dispiriting to read about gentle likeable Guido Brunetti wearily making these choices.
Read it for the lovely Brunetti family scenes. Brace yourself for a deeply unsatisfying moral resolution.

I really liked this last installment in Commissario Brunetti series. This time the story puts Brunetti in a very difficult place, where even the Greek tragedies cannot help him. Very well done.

Questa ultima avventura del commissario Brunetti mi é piaciuta parecchio; anche perché stavolta Donna Leon lo mette in una condizione di estrema difficoltà, dove neanche le sue letture erudite possono aiutarlo, nonostante possa sembrare una vera e propria tragedia greca quella in cui é coinvolto.

THANKS EDELWEISS FOR THE PREVIEW!

Not much of story here. The first half of the book is more about the miserable summer weather then finally an investigation starts and is suddenly over.

A book published in 2020

#PopSugarReadingChallenge2020