"Um amigo seu inglês observara, certa ocasião, que viver ali era como viver num loony bin. Brunetti não fazia ideia do que era um loony bin, nem onde ficava, mas isso não o impedira de acreditar que o amigo estava certo. Com o tempo, pôde comprovar que era uma descrição precisa de Itália."O décimo terceiro livro da série do Comissário Guido Brunetti começa com a descoberta de um corpo brutalmente assassinado de uma idosa antipática detestável. Avarenta, rabugenta e sempre mal-humorada, a vitima era um tormento para todos os seus vizinhos, pois tinha a televisão no volume máximo, durante todo o dia e toda a noite. O caso é rapidamente resolvido e é quando Brunetti chega das suas férias, que aparece uma nova testemunha, obrigando à reabertura da investigação. Numa batalha com o seu colega e rival tenente Scarpa, o comissário emprega todas as suas forças e conhecimentos para alcançar a verdade. Mas quem tem inimigos, também tem aliados e Brunetti tem a ajuda do fiel inspetor Vianello e da Signorina Elettra, a secretária da Questura que não tem medo de infringir as regras para descobrir a informação necessária. Entre as suas muitas qualidades, destacam-se os seus dotes de hacker profissional, que continuam a surpreender o comissário e as quais já não dispensa.Para Brunetti a justiça não tem contornos definidos e é pintada com várias tonalidades distintas. Porém, neste mistério italiano que nos leva a passear pela bela cidade de Veneza, o comissário está mais impaciente e respondão!Em "Provas Manipuladas" temos o prazer de reencontrar Patta, o chefe convencido e impertinente do comissário, bem como a sua família, que já tão bem conhecemos. Paola, a mulher de Brunetti, continua tão bonita e inteligente como anteriormente, e nesta história a sua leitura de mesinha de cabeceira proporciona uma discussão curiosa e interessante sobre os sete pecados mortais e o seu impacto cada vez menor na sociedade atual. Como sempre, os dotes culinários de Paola são evidenciados, com descrições fabulosas de pratos italianos, que nos deixam com água na boca.Donna Leon criou um conjunto de personagens único, com personalidade fortes e opiniões distintas e é através delas que nos dá a conhecer a cidade de Veneza e os venezianos, com tudo o que têm de bom e de mau. Neste livro é abordado o preconceito em relação aos imigrantes e aos homossexuais. Também se estende ao mundo das finanças e da política, ainda que superficialmente.Acima de tudo, Donna Leon é uma autora que se preocupa com os detalhes e evidencia tanto os seus mistérios, como as suas personagens. Ler a série do Brunetti é como estar em casa, onde as pessoas nos são familiares e o ambiente que nos rodeia nos faz sentir seguros e confortáveis."Quando era criança, tinham-lhe ensinado que o paraíso era um mundo sem pecado, mas este admirável mundo que tinha perdido o sentido do pecado, onde ele se encontrava, não era nenhum paraíso."
This book was essentially a meditation on greed and pride. One old woman's greed meets a man who has lied about his education to attain a high position. The result is blackmail and finally, murder. Brunetti makes it interesting by injecting his ruminations from his close reading of the ancient greeks about power into the case. Then he adds his examination of the seven deadly sins from his daughter's Catholic catechism books. Modern life has rendered many of the deadly sins acceptable or at least not remarkable. As usual, the cultural perspective built into the Brunetti books remains fascinating. His assumption that things don't work, don't get done, don't get punished is at odds with his interactions with Northern Europeans who believe in the authority of the law and one's duty to it and society. Then there is his confusion in reading his subordinate with whom he has forged a bond of trust over decades: in some situations, he knows to go with "tu", the familiar address; in others, he struggles with whether the more formal "Lei" is more appropriate. As an American, it is inconceivable that one would even think about using a formal form of address for someone we like and have worked with for decades. The appeal of this detective series, like Henning Mankell (Sweden) and Karin Fossum (Norway, is in the cultural knowledge that is exhibited and passed on in the telling of the story. They're like cultural ambassadors to how people in another country think and act. What are the societal norms and how are they expressed. The murder story is merely the vehicle. I deeply appreciate the cultural conversation that these authors bring to their stories. The fact that they are in a series allows the cultural insights to seep in and take hold. If it were a single book, you wouldn't have the deeper sense of beginning to see and think the way these different societies do.I wonder if the "great American novel," is merely this: a book that clearly and skillfully details what it means to be American. How we think. What we do. The rules by which we navigate our culture and how we do/do not fit in.
Do You like book Doctored Evidence (2004)?
My first Donna Leon book and I probably should have started with an earlier one in the series. I had trouble following who was senior to who with her liberal use of Italian and some of the camaraderie of his team seemed very established and I felt almost left out. I don't mind use of another language and a mystery set in Venice needs that but sometimes it was hard to figure out what the word actually meant so what is the point. That said, I don't think there was much to the story. A rather simplistic plot with some good old fashioned detective work to get us to the end but traipsing through pedophiles to get there seemed odd. I will try one more of her works before abandoning it however.
—Chrissy
This is the 13th novel in Donna Leon's series but the first that I have read, and fortunately, you need not have read the first twelve for this to make sense. Apparently they are all stand alone novels. I really liked this story, set in the city in which the author lives, Venice, about an old woman who is murdered in her home and who might have killed her. The main character, Commissario Guido Brunetti, is likable and written as a man of integrity, and of course the setting is terrific, as are the supporting characters. The victim, Maria Battestini, is so detestable that the reader is almost glad she was killed. Good story, and I will be reading others by Leon.
—Theresa Leone Davidson
I think I should finally confess: I'm reading Donna Leon's Inspector Guido Brunetti books almost entirely for the food. Leon clearly lives and eats in Italy at least part of the time, because her characters eat there all of the time. The book is at its most recognizably Italian when Inspector Brunetti is contemplating his meals -- and neither he, nor Leon, ever miss a single one.That makes the action go a bit slower, sometimes, but it also makes this a book that couldn't exist on American soil -- at least not without a statement about the health (or lack thereof) of its main character. Oh, for the espresso and pastry breakfast! Oh, for the two-wine-glass lunch! Oh, for the salt-crusted fish with creamy polenta at dinner, with a dash of cognac on the balcony!The mysteries in these books are never terribly compelling, and the characters stay almost precisely unchanged from book to book: Brunetti is mild-mannered, bewildered, honest to a fault, everything an American woman would like to believe of Italian men. His wife is bright and bookish and cryptically in charge of everything, including full lunches and dinners for the whole family. His coworkers are either brilliant (Elletra, Villanio) or complete obstructions to justice (Scarpa, Patta). This case -- which involves the murder of a hideous old woman in her hideous old apartment -- is no different. All that changes is the food on the plates -- but, sometimes, that's enough.
—Jenn
