Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #610615 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-28
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .94" h x 6.34" w x 9.06" l, 1.09 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Last seen in Blood from a Stone (2005), Commissario Guido Brunetti investigates a murder on Murano, the famed island of glassmakers, in Leon's assured 15th mystery starring the cynical yet diligent Venetian policeman. Has a worker, found singed to death in front of a blazing furnace, been killed because of his environmental activism? Or is this a family feud between the factory's owner and his "green" engineer of a son-in-law? As usual, Leon educates the reader about the charms and corruptions of Italian life (the sensuality of the architecture and food, the indolence and stagnation of its bureaucracies), besides presenting a crash course in 21st-century glass-making. Every character, every line of dialogue, every descriptive passage rings true in a whodunit that's also travel essay, political commentary and existential monologue. And the middle-aged, happily married Brunetti remains unique—an everyman who's also extraordinary: "During his early years as a policeman... people still argued about whether it was right or wrong to use force during an interrogation.... Now they argued about how much pain they could inflict." (May)
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From AudioFile
David Colacci's performance brings an unhurried elegance to Leon's unique detective, Commisario Guido Brunetti. He creates a Venice you can feel in your bones, "cold and damp in winter and hot and damp in summer." Colacci's interpretation of each well-drawn personality is as fresh as the first day of spring, the day Brunetti and his assistant, Vianello, try to help eco-protester Marco Ribetti. Later, a murder at Ribetti's father-in-law's glass factory has Brunetti hunting the killer. Dealing with political corruption, toxic waste, and clues found in Dante's DIVINE COMEDY, Colacci shifts from unaccented narration to a wide range of completely believable Italian accents, never missing a beat, never overstating or slipping into obvious stereotype. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Leon's Guido Brunetti novels have been justly celebrated for their nuanced portrayal of Venice and their character-driven emphasis on human relationships. Both of those attributes are displayed nicely in her latest effort, the fifteenth in this long-running and much-loved series. When police commissario Brunetti and his assistant, Vianello, help out one of Vianello's friends, who has been arrested in an environmental protest, they find themselves embroiled in a family feud involving the friend's wife and her father, the owner of a centuries-old glass factory on the nearby island of Murano. No actual crime takes place until the novel is nearly half over, and even then, the death of a night watchman at the glass factory appears accidental. More than ever in this series, the emphasis here is not on mystery--the bad guy is obvious from the beginning--but on ambience and character. Leon delves deeply into the fascinating world of Murano glassmakers, and as always, she lingers lovingly over Brunetti's family life and the commissario's abiding empathy with everyone he encounters. Satisfying as always, but the lack of an engaging mystery plot leaves a bit of a hole this time. Bill Ott
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