The Golden Egg (Commissario Brunetti 22) [Kindle Edition]

Ah - there are few pleasures in life more satisfying than a well-written mystery. An added pleasure is if the setting is an exotic and intriguing place you would like to visit. When you read, your mind gets to travel. This newest mystery novel by Donna Leon has the feel of being written by a writer at ease with her craft who enjoys her characters. It has a literary quality, and the writing is fresh, not cliched. The book opens with Detective Brunetti and his family playing a fun word game over dinner at their home in Venice. Words, and the power of them, is a theme Brunetti muses upon throughout this story.

A young deaf and dumb man, who worked at the dry cleaners which Brunetti and his wife frequent, is found dead of apparent suicide. His death causes the Brunetti's to wonder: what would compel a young disabled person to kill themselves? Had something changed in his life? Or is something more sinister at play?

Brunetti decides to investigate the incident out of principle and sympathy, to honor the young man's life. When neighbors refuse to speak to him, and the young man's mother isn't exactly forthcoming, one wonders if foul play was involved. If so, why? Who would want to murder a sweet young man?

Simultaneously, Brunetti's dull-witted and pompous boss asks him to delicately investigate a matter involving the Mayor's son's fiancee who may be involved in a shop-keeping violation. With an impending election, any possible embarrassment for the Mayor must be fended off.

While the plots in this series delight, I read as much for the aesthetic of the books. The fine writing, the savory Italian food (Brunetti has a cookbook Brunetti's Cookbook [Hardcover], the descriptions of Venetian scenery and even the atmosphere of thought and attitudes pervading Venice by its citizens are as enticing as the story. The characters often discuss politics, corruption, the Mafia, parliament, Venetian accents, other Italian towns, and the church among other topics. As the author has lived in Venice for the past 30 years, there is real insight here. You get an insider's view of someone who lives in Venice, reads the local newspaper, and talks to the citizens daily.

The detective Brunetti is also a huge attraction as he's smart, sympathetic, educated, fairly humble, a good boss, father and husband--although he will discreetly notice attractive features of women he works with and meets. He likes to read and think (in this book he's reading Lucretius - Leon says she has him reading what she is reading) and he finds humor and joy in life. In an interview, Leon said she created a detective she would want to companion with for a few years. She has companioned with Brunetti for 22 years, as this is the 22nd book in the series.

The pace in this story has the leisurely pace of an Italian meal, as Brunetti and his team use conversation and internet research to detect the relationships and motives of the players involved. Forensics is only an aid. Brunetti travels all over Venice, and you travel with him, as he talks to the people who surround his investigations. You see the beauty and sublimity of Venice through his eyes.

This is an original plot which may make you want to discuss it with someone else after you have finished reading the book. Brunetti says something at the end of the book which had me questioning what really happened. I like plots which make you think and are still plausible. Readers new to the Brunetti series can easily begin with this book without needing background. They may then want to go back to the beginning and read the first book in the series: Death at La Fenice: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery.

Leon says she read mysteries in college during her down time, and wrote that first book as a fun exercise after jokingly discussing wanting to murder a conductor in an opera house. She put the manuscript in a drawer for awhile, until someone convinced her to submit it to a mystery contest. She won and received a two-book contract which launched this quality series which mystery readers enjoy like a fine wine, or tasty Italian tiramisu. Warning: Brunetti and his family seem to have dessert after every dinner - you may want to visit your local Italian bakery and buy a pastry to enjoy along with this book so you won't feel deprived.

This series is to be savored like delectable Italian cuisine. This newest entree by Leon should please her readers as they once again join Detective Brunetti in investigating a mystery in his enigmatic and beguiling Venezia.

For one thing, this 22nd Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery is not a Questura case. It's a story that evolves from Paola Falier Brunetti's concern and curiosity about the death of the boy from the Brunetti family's dry cleaners whom they'd seen there for years, standing in the back room, folding things and always looking so sad. Most customers knew him as "The boy who didn't speak" and assumed he was a relative of the proprietors, and that he was not only deaf but probably also mute. No one seemed to know his name. At Paola's urging, Brunetti starts looking into what had happened and soon finds that the dead boy/man did have a name and a cold and taciturn mother he lived with. Was his death accidental or intentional? And if intentional, was it suicide or murder? No way to tell.

Brunetti also finds that nowhere in the public records is there any evidence this boy/man had ever existed. That conundrum piques the interest of some of Brunetti's Questura colleagues. Just as this story is quite a bit different from what we're used to, so too are the supporting roles. Brunetti's sidekick, Vianello, gets involved for awhile, then drops out of the picture. Everyone's favorite computer hacker, Elettra, has relatively little to do here, as does Patta, who thinks Brunetti's still out investigating a case he's already solved. Meanwhile, we get to spend quite a lot of time getting to know Foa and Pucetti a lot better. Then, about halfway through, comes a nice surprise when Commissaria Claudia Griffoni, the only female detective at the Questura, who was introduced five or six books ago and hasn't been seen since, takes over the sidekick role usually played by Vianello.

As for the story itself: Unusual, to say the least, absolutely fascinating, populated with some exceedingly odd characters and told in a somewhat more leisurely style than we're used to. And, in the end, the Bad Egg'll get one whale of a comeuppance. Highly recommended for series fans. Probably not the best choice for newbies.

Here's a chronological Brunetti book list, as of March 2013: "Death at La Fenice," "Death in a Strange Country" "Dressed for Death," "Death and Judgment," "Acqua Alta," "Quietly in Their Sleep," "A Noble Radiance, " "Fatal Remedies," "Friends in High Places," "A Sea of Troubles," "Willful Behavior," "Uniform Justice," "Doctored Evidence," "Blood from a Stone," "Through a Glass, Darkly" "Suffer the Little Children," "The Girl of His Dreams," "About Face," "A Question of Belief," "Drawing Conclusions," "Beastly Things" and "The Golden Egg." (Please note: Should you ever come across "The Anonymous Venetian," "A Venetian Reckoning" or "The Death of Faith" know that these are not new Leons; they're just the British titles of "Dressed for Death," "Death and Judgment" and "Quietly in Their Sleep.")

On finishing The Golden Egg, I mentally congratulated Donna Leon on a fine return to solid mystery writing. After a few less-than-satisfying Brunetti novels over the past several years, I was starting to wonder if her best days were past. Then the stand alone, non-Brunetti novel The Jewels of Paradise, appeared last year, and while it was great to see an established writer taking a risk, the story itself was underwhelming.

The Golden Egg kept me guessing throughout, didn't rely (entirely) on Signorina Elettra's miraculous computer hacking skills, and ended with a shocking discovery. As usual with Donna Leon, there is not necessarily a crime or even a murder, although there is a mysterious death right off the bat. Whether it was murder is Brunetti's puzzle to solve, and apparently there is nothing else requiring his attention that week, so he investigates what everyone else assumes is an accidental death.

In traditional police procedural fashion, Brunetti interviews, detects, and finds layers of deception and decades of greed. Those who enjoy catching up with Brunetti's family will enjoy the mealtime discussions with Paola and the kids. After a week of detecting, Brunetti has solved a mystery, but other questions remain.

A few days after finishing The Golden Egg, I found myself wondering if there weren't some holes in the story. The shocking discovery -- was that even a possibility? Why doesn't Elettra quit doing the cops' work for them and get a lucrative job in computer security?

So -- good story for a weekend, but don't think about it too much.