I really like Donna Leon. I hope she continues to write forever. Her books are always literate and interesting with marvelous characters. The plots are intricate even if her view of Italian society is dark indeed. For example, in Acqua Alta, a woman is seriously beaten by some thugs. Her partner calls for an ambulance, but she is told there are two people ahead of her and she must be placed on a waiting list. Sorry. Once in the hospital every palm must be greased just to get the sheets changed. Corruption is rampant. Amidst this corruption, Commisario Guido Brunetti, and his wife, Paola, struggle to remain honest and raise their children. They have a wonderful relationship -- “the radar of a long marriage” -- and Paola provides a nice contretemps to Guido. Leon, who has taught English for many years at University of Maryland extension campus at the U.S. Army's Vicenza (Italy) post, has lived many years in Italy, speaks the language fluently, and captures the nuances of the people and of daily life in Venice.
Acqua Alta refers to the seasonal high water in Venice when the tides flood large sections of the city. Sirens wail before the expected onrush and everyone must wear boots to get around in water that can be knee-deep. The city is always slow to erect the boards that people must traverse to avoid the water (I’m reading a book about Venice that discusses the future of the city -- more in a later issue). The high water and muck it brings provides a thread that nicely parallels the difficulties Guido faces during this investigation.
Flavia Petrelli, an opera singer, and her lover, Brett Lynch, an American archaeologist, return from a previous novel, Death at La Fenice Brett was beaten up as a warning not to meet with the director of a famous art museum (later murdered) and Guido must sort out a series of events in the underbelly of the art world related to an archaeological dig in China. Lurking behind everything is the dampness and the cold fog that seeps into all the old crusty buildings. Guido always solves the crimes, but the guilty often, because of the corruption and their connections, remain unpunished. Unusually, in this one, Guido arrives in time before the tragedy.
