Title: A Question of Belief (Commissario Brunetti #19)
Author: Donna Leon
Published: 2010
Category: Mystery
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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This is one of those series I’m listening to out-of-order, based on what our library has available on audio. This one was actually read by a different narrator than the others, David Colacci, and while he did a good job, it took me a little while to get used to him. I tend to associate a voice with the series I listen to and it throws me a little when they change it up.
Venice itself is one of the reasons I keep returning to this series. Leon really brings the city to life, good and bad. This time around it’s summer and the heat is oppressive, but Brunetti ends up stuck in Venice, missing his family’s vacation to the mountains. His family is not as present in this installment as they are in some of the others, but the bits we get with them are nice. They feel like real people and I actually adore how much both Brunetti and his wife love to read. The books are the first thing they pack for vacation, clothes come second.
So, I love the series, but A Question of Belief was just so-so for me. I like Brunetti, as always, and his right hand, Vianello. Vianello actually opens this book, concerned about his aunt’s preoccupation with fortune-tellers and card readers. That was actually the part of the plot I liked, where his aunt’s gullibility leads the investigation. The murder that keeps Brunetti in town, along with the eventual discovery of the killer and the motive left me a little cold. Leon uses her stories to explore politics and social prejudices, and I appreciate that, I just wasn’t hooked by the form that took here. But Brunetti follows the clues in his intelligent, calm way and gets to the solution.
Commissario Guido Brunetti Series
- Death at La Fenice
- Death in a Strange Country
- Dressed for Death (APA: The Anonymous Venetian)
- Death and Judgment (APA: A Venetian Reckoning)
- Acqua Alta (APA: Death in High Water)
- Death of Faith (APA: Quietly in Their Sleep)
- A Noble Radiance
- Fatal Remedies
- Friends in High Places
- A Sea of Troubles
- Wilfull 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
Challenge: WAYR
I love and adore mysteries but I just can’t get into these…yet!
Some are certainly better than others. Or maybe I just love Venice, not that I’ve ever actually been there, just visited in books.
I do have a book by her, which one? No idea, I should check 😉
Having read several of the books in this series (the rest are on my TBR mountain) I know exactly what you mean about the Venice setting, it is this and Bruneti’s relationships that keep me reading. Oh and of course the mention of all that wonderful food.
The food in the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri has amazing food too.
I like Brunetti too. I read this one and enjoyed it enough to want to read more in this series. I did like te Venice setting.