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Drama in Venice

 What a joy it is to sink into a book that feels close to *a sure thing* ....You know you're in good hands even before the end of the first chapter.


That's the feeling Donna Leon delivers book after book after book, and we've just received her thirtieth Guido Brunetti volume this month.


Guido is an unusually thoughtful detective living in Venice, in the modern day; he reads Tacitus, and he fears that his little town is sinking into the sea. He has a solid marriage to a sassy Henry James scholar; he has adolescent children who worry about vegan dieting, and about the environment. At the office, Guido can chat with Elettra, the rule-bending genius administrative assistant, and he can spar with Patta, his insufferable boss. These characters are so well-defined after thirty years, you do actually feel that you live in their neighborhood.


I'm not too far into "Transient Desires" -- the new Brunetti -- but I'm already enjoying the weird details that distinguish Leon from basically all other crime writers. Brunetti stares sadly at a water stain on his wall, "like an octopus, but with just seven legs." He shows up to work late, but escapes his boss's ire by pretending to have stepped outside in search of cell-phone service. (His boss sees him as "a teenager who has just announced there is no homework tonight.") The best moment so far: A driver of a water-taxi makes a random gesture, and Patta, "thinking all gestures are offers of assistance," grabs the driver's arm and uses it as a kind of walking-stick, a guide for getting into the boat. No word of thanks is offered; Patta never notes the driver's puzzlement.


That's why I keep returning to Donna Leon, year after year. I hope she keeps it up.

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