When Venetian detective Commissario Guido Brunetti is called to investigate a presumed suicide in Venice's elite military academy, his inquiries are immediately met with a wall of silence. The young man is the son of a doctor and former politician, a man of an impeccable integrity all too rare in Italian politics. Dr. Moro seems devastated by his son's death; but while both he and his apparently estranged wife seem convinced that the boy would not have committed suicide, neither appears eager to talk to the police or to ...
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When Venetian detective Commissario Guido Brunetti is called to investigate a presumed suicide in Venice's elite military academy, his inquiries are immediately met with a wall of silence. The young man is the son of a doctor and former politician, a man of an impeccable integrity all too rare in Italian politics. Dr. Moro seems devastated by his son's death; but while both he and his apparently estranged wife seem convinced that the boy would not have committed suicide, neither appears eager to talk to the police or to involve Brunetti in any kind of investigation into their son's death. Is the silence that confronts Brunetti the natural reluctance of Italians to involve themselves with the authorities, or is he facing a conspiracy far greater than this one death?
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Donna Leon has indicated that she writes these books for her own amusement. She also refuses to have them sold in Italy; she's not interested in being a ?personality.?
Boy was she in a melancholy mood when she wrote UNIFORM JUSTICE! Although there are several instances of the wry Leon wit throughout the book, the book seems filled with despair. Each of Leon's books makes an effort to harpoon something lamentable that ?the Americans? are doing. But this book takes a sharp look at the pervasive corruption in Italy.
The author uses a Venetian military academy for young men as the backdrop for this tragic tale. As the story begins, a young 17 year-old, only son of a prominent Venetian physician is hanging in a shower stall. Although Vice-Questore Patta wants to close the case quickly by accepting the easy answer of ?death by suicide,? Brunetti is not so certain.
As he delves deeper into the history of Dr. Moro's aborted career in politics, Brunetti becomes more certain that Ernesto Moro was murdered. The sad facts that emerge about the Moro family swirl about in a chilly Venetian winter. The whole aura is one of gloom and depression.
It is particularly sad to watch Guido Brunetti work within a corrupt system to find the truth. Guido and his charming family remind us that it is possible to remain honest ? even when surrounded by rampant theft, bribery and murder.
In many books I read, the author gets caught up in the police procedures to the point that the victim (especially the horror of a violent death) is lost. Leon, through the use of a brilliant ending, brings the true horror of the loss of a young life back to face the reader!
The reason I did not give this novel a 5 star rating is that the author spent a bit too much time on her hobby-horse of political views. Although I agree with the wisdom of many of her ideas, Leon spent too much time sharing them in a work of fiction.
Guido Brunetti
1. Death at La Fenice
2. Death in a Strange Country
3. The Anonymous Venetian (aka Dressed for Death)
4. A Venetian Reckoning (aka Death and Judgment)
5. Acqua Alta (aka Death in High Water)
6. The Death of Faith (aka Quietly in Their Sleep)
7. A Noble Radiance
8. Fatal Remedies
9. Friends in High Places
10. A Sea of Troubles
11. Willful Behavior
12. Uniform Justice
