Through a Glass, Darkly: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery

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) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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 --This text refers to the

Audio CD edition.