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A review by saareman
Beastly Things by Donna Leon
4.0
Animal Profits
Review of the Penguin paperback edition (2013) of the Atlantic Monthly Press hardcover original (2012)
I am continuing to enjoy the Brunetti series, especially for the Venice atmosphere created by writer Donna Leon, who lived in the city for 30 years until retiring recently to a small village in Switzerland. I am trying to read them in chronological order as best as I can source them, but I chanced on a copy of Beastly Things (Brunetti #21) and couldn't resist it.
Beastly Things finds Brunetti investigating the murder of a seemingly well-respected animal veterinarian whose body is found in the Venice canals. I don't know if Donna Leon overdid that as a body site, but I've now read 2 books in succession, after Brunetti #2, where it was also used. Brunetti discovers that the veterinarian moonlighted at a slaughterhouse in order to observe and maintain animal safety protocols. The actions of various characters at the abattoir provoke Brunetti's suspicions and the game is afoot!
Actor Michael Degen as Vice-Questore Patta and actor Walter Kreye as Maurizio de Rivera, with a view of Santa Maria della Salute (Saint Mary of Health), Venice, Italy in the background in a film still from the German television adaptation of "Beastly Things" (2015). Image sourced from IMDB.
Trivia and Links
There is a really fascinating interview with author Donna Leon at ItalianMysteries.Com even if it was done 18 years ago. She discusses all sorts of background to the books and characters and also gives the reason that she won't allow the books to be translated into Italian (and it wasn't because she feared criticism by her neighbours in Venice).
Coincidentally Beastly Things, as the 21st Brunetti book, was filmed as the 21st episode "Tierische Profite" (Animal Profits) (2015) of the German language TV series (2000-2019) based on the Donna Leon / Commissario Brunetti series. The series was otherwise not filmed in the order of the books. That entire episode (German language, but you can turn on auto-generated English subtitles) is available on YouTube here.
An English language summary of the German language Commissario Brunetti TV series is available at Fictional Cities (Spoilers Obviously). As explained in the above interview, the TV-series was a German production as the books took off in popularity the most in the German speaking countries of Europe as Leon's publishing agent was Swiss-German and knew that market the best.
Review of the Penguin paperback edition (2013) of the Atlantic Monthly Press hardcover original (2012)
I am continuing to enjoy the Brunetti series, especially for the Venice atmosphere created by writer Donna Leon, who lived in the city for 30 years until retiring recently to a small village in Switzerland. I am trying to read them in chronological order as best as I can source them, but I chanced on a copy of Beastly Things (Brunetti #21) and couldn't resist it.
Beastly Things finds Brunetti investigating the murder of a seemingly well-respected animal veterinarian whose body is found in the Venice canals. I don't know if Donna Leon overdid that as a body site, but I've now read 2 books in succession, after Brunetti #2, where it was also used. Brunetti discovers that the veterinarian moonlighted at a slaughterhouse in order to observe and maintain animal safety protocols. The actions of various characters at the abattoir provoke Brunetti's suspicions and the game is afoot!
Actor Michael Degen as Vice-Questore Patta and actor Walter Kreye as Maurizio de Rivera, with a view of Santa Maria della Salute (Saint Mary of Health), Venice, Italy in the background in a film still from the German television adaptation of "Beastly Things" (2015). Image sourced from IMDB.
Trivia and Links
There is a really fascinating interview with author Donna Leon at ItalianMysteries.Com even if it was done 18 years ago. She discusses all sorts of background to the books and characters and also gives the reason that she won't allow the books to be translated into Italian (and it wasn't because she feared criticism by her neighbours in Venice).
Coincidentally Beastly Things, as the 21st Brunetti book, was filmed as the 21st episode "Tierische Profite" (Animal Profits) (2015) of the German language TV series (2000-2019) based on the Donna Leon / Commissario Brunetti series. The series was otherwise not filmed in the order of the books. That entire episode (German language, but you can turn on auto-generated English subtitles) is available on YouTube here.
An English language summary of the German language Commissario Brunetti TV series is available at Fictional Cities (Spoilers Obviously). As explained in the above interview, the TV-series was a German production as the books took off in popularity the most in the German speaking countries of Europe as Leon's publishing agent was Swiss-German and knew that market the best.