The book opens in a sweltering July in Venice. After a series of torrential rains, it hasn’t rained in weeks. The city is full of tourists and too many cruise ships. This heat was not normal until recently and more and more residents understand the concept of climate change.

When a dying woman asks to speak with a female police officer to come to her hospice room, Bruno assigns Claudia Griffoni although he comes along as her secondary. Claudia is tall, blonde and blue eyed and comes from Naples. The traditional disdain that northern Italians have had for southern Italians is discussed here as it is in the other books. Venetians assume that Claudia is one of their own until she speaks. Venice has a dialect that is distinctly different from the Italian taught in school. Claudia is able to switch from her Napolitano speech to “educated” Italian whenever she wishes although she is still trying to learn Venetian.

The dying woman is only 37. She has two daughters and her husband had been killed in a motorcycle accident a few weeks before. Now she has something urgent to tell the police. She can barely speak and they have to work to get the information they need. She talks about “bad money” and whether her husband’s accident was actually an accident or something else.

With the help of Signorina Elletra’s amazing computer skills they learn about the company he worked for - one that monitored local water supplies for local government. It doesn’t take long to see where this is going.

At the same time two young “Rom” girls (gypsies) were caught by the wife of the mayor trying to steal from her purse. The mayor wants them gone. Unfortunately it’s not that easy.

There is a lot of irony and sadness in this book. It doesn’t have a particularly happy ending and there’s no action. Donna Leon has lived in Italy for a long time and has the same relationship with that country as the native born: love and despair.

I love a good Brunetti, but as soon as I heard what the target of his investigation did for a living, I knew how this would end. Donna Leon writes really well about environmental issues but she has tackled them in so many of her novels that I'm a bit desensitised. Still, it's always nice to visit Venice and spend some time with Guido and Paola and the kids.

I love Commissario Brunetti series but I don't think this is the best installment.
I found it slow paced and more tragic than other books I read in this series.
The main theme is the environment and the damaged caused by the humans. The descriptions of Venice in summer is realistic and the water theme was interesting and it's a very serious topic.
The mystery was slow, it took quite a long time before you start to understand what the issue is and it wasn't hard to guess the culprit.
I liked it and found Guido and Venice descriptions as interesting as usual.
I think it can be recommended to fan of the series but it's not the right book to start reading Donna De Leon.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

As per usual in her latest novels Donna Leon uses her books to comment on social, political or, in this case, environmental matters. Also, there's a subplot about pickpocket minors and the police inability to deal with them. Although a crime novel, the crime itself is secondary. In fact, it's not even clear if a murder has been committed, becoming almost incidental, but the story is no less entertaining because of it. At the end, Brunetti is presented with a moral dilemma, and although the ending it's not as satisfying as I would have like from the story point of view, it's a faithful reflection of today's world, as there are times when things don't wrap up as neatly as we wish.

I've been reading this series for years and I keep doing it not for the crimes or the plots themselves, but for its characters. Each book offers a glimpse into their daily lives, sometimes with more interesting stories than others, but always a pleasure to come back.

If you've been a fan of this series for years you'll like this one, but if it's your first Brunetti story and you're expecting a traditional murder mystery I suggest you start with the first books in the series, if only for getting to know these beloved characters from the beginning.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Atlantic Month Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

If one draws a line between genre fiction and literary fiction, Donna Leon has a foot firmly planted in both camps. Her Venetian series starring Commissario (police superintendent) Guido Brunetti are always entertaining mysteries, but they are always far more, with outstanding characterization and (disturbing) insights into Italian and Venetian politics as they affect police investigations. One can read these novels as standalones, but much more pleasure will be derived by starting nearer the beginning of the series and gradually getting to know Brunetti (how can you not be fascinated by a detective who reads Aeschylus for pleasure?), his family, his fellow police officers, and the city itself. “Trace Elements” is concerned with pollution of Venetian waters. I highly recommend it.

I still enjoy dropping in on Guido, Paola, Chiara, Raffi, Vianello, Pata and Signorina Elettra Zorzi to see what is going on in their lives. Over the years though, I've grown tired of the constant complaining about tourists and the corruption in the Italian government, all of which we see through Leon's eyes.

I think Ms. Leon needs to re-visit a previous novel and do a sequel so that readers are able to see the outcome of a case investigated by Brunetti - maybe he needs to get more evidence to get a conviction. I'm getting weary of his philosophical struggles with the corruption of the system of which he is an integral part. Is he too young to retire and become a private investigator, or maybe practice law so we can see things from another perspective?