Donna Leon has written a whole series of detective murder mysteries based in Italy and featuring a police detective called Brunetti. This particular book is centred on the death of a conductor at the Venice Opera House. I was attracted to the book because of the setting, although I do have to say that I was totally confused by a map of the city which didn't really help me to get my bearings at all - the main places featured were not well marked, and as I've never been to Italy, let alone Venice I had no idea about the City being described. Donna is a good writer, although she doesn't follow a tradtionaldetective story format - she's certainly no Agatha Christie, and neither is it really a police procedure novel. She's clearly interested in exposing the innate corruption of Italian society (well it is corrupt if it's anything like how she describes) and she'd certainly researched the world of opera very well. The characters came to life but I was disatisfied by the solution - an anticlimax and too trite by far. I suspect I will read though - eventually.
My rating? 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment