The Temptation of Forgiveness (Guido Brunetti Series #27)

by Donna Leon

Overview

In the twenty-seventh novel in Donna Leon's bestselling mystery series, a suspicious accident leads Commissario Guido Brunetti to uncover a longstanding scam with disturbing unintended consequences

The memorable characters and Venetian drama that have long captivated Donna Leon’s many readers are on full display in The Temptation of Forgiveness. Surprised, if not dismayed, to discover from his superior, Vice-Questore Patta, that leaks are emanating from the Questura, Commissario Guido Brunetti is surprised more consequentially by the appearance of a friend of his wife’s, fearful that her son is using drugs and hopeful Brunetti can somehow intervene. When Tullio Gasparini, the woman’s husband, is found unconscious and with a serious brain injury at the foot of a bridge in Venice after midnight, Brunetti is drawn to pursue a possible connection to the boy’s behavior. But the truth, as Brunetti has experienced so often, is not straightforward.

As the twenty-seventh novel unfolds in Donna Leon’s exquisite chronicle of Venetian life in all its blissful and sordid aspects, Brunetti pursues several false and contradictory leads while growing ever more impressed by the intuition of his fellow Commissario, Claudia Griffoni, and by the endless resourcefulness and craftiness of Signorina Elettra, Patta’s secretary and gate-keeper. Exasperated by the petty bureaucracy that constantly bedevils him and threatens to expose Signorina Elettra, Brunetti is steadied by the embrace of his own family and by his passion for the classics. This predilection leads him to read Sophocles’ Antigone, and, in its light, consider the terrible consequences to which the actions of a tender heart can lead.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802127754
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/20/2018
Series:	Guido Brunetti Series , #27
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Donna Leon, born in New Jersey in 1942, has worked as a travel guide in Rome and as a copywriter in London. She taught literature in universities in Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia. Commissario Brunetti made her books world-famous. Donna Leon lived in Italy for many years, and although she now lives in Switzerland, she often visits Venice.

Hometown:

Venice, Italy

Date of Birth:

February 28, 1942

Place of Birth:

Montclair, New Jersey

Education:

B.A., 1964; M.A. 1969; postgraduate work in English literature

Read an Excerpt

When they were seated, Patta began: “I’d like to speak to you frankly, Commissario.” Brunetti ignored the chance this remark gave him to ask how Patta had spoken to him in the past and, instead, nodded and put on a pleasant, interested expression. At least Patta had wasted no time with preliminaries.

“It’s about leaks,” Patta said.

“Leaks?” Brunetti asked, resisting the urge to look at the ceiling.

“From the Questura,” Patta continued.

Ah, that kind of leaks, Brunetti told himself and wondered what Patta had in mind. Nothing embarrassing had appeared in either Il Gazzettino or La Nuova di Venezia for some time, so Brunetti was without advance warning about what information might be leaking from the Questura.

“These leaks, sir: could you tell me more about them?”

“I wanted to speak to you, Brunetti, because you know people here,” Patta said, reminding Brunetti that this was still the old Patta, for whom any information about the inner workings of the Questura was to be treated as part of the Delphic Mysteries.

Brunetti waved a hand in the air, either to dismiss those hidden truths Patta believed he knew or perhaps to summon them from the vasty deep.

“They talk to you,” Patta insinuated. Hearing Patta’s suspicion relaxed Brunetti and told him that, though the subject might be new, the old, adversarial order had been restored. He tossed away his momentary warming towards Patta and returned to his native good sense.

“What is it you think they’ve been talking about Vice-Questore?”

Patta cleared his throat with a small noise. “I’ve heard rumors that some people are displeased with Lieutenant Scarpa,” Patta said, struggling, it seemed, to keep indignation from his voice. Then, more calmly, as though he considered it of lesser importance, he added, “It also seems that someone has been talking about a person brought in for questioning.”

Editorial Reviews

The Venetian settings are enchanting and Commissario Guido Brunetti's investigative methods are drolly amusing. But it's the living, bleeding humanity of the characters that makes Donna Leon's police procedurals so engaging.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

01/15/2018
In Leon’s thought-provoking 27th Commissario Guido Brunetti novel (after 2017’s Earthly Remains), Elisa Crosera, a university colleague of Brunetti’s wife, fears that her teenage son has fallen prey to unidentified drug dealers and approaches him for help. Armed only with an informant’s tip, the Venetian policeman checks into the activities of a longtime dealer recently released from prison. When Crosera’s accountant husband, Tullio Gasparini, is found on a bridge, suffering from serious head injuries, Brunetti wonders whether Gasparini was pursuing his own investigation and posed a threat to his son’s drug connections. As Brunetti looks into Gasparini’s movements and background, he uncovers strange behavior by Gasparini’s aged aunt that may point to more sinister doings. Amid the procedural aspects of the case, vivid descriptions of Venice, and interludes with Brunetti’s pesky superior, Leon offers intelligent reflections on the fallout that can harm both innocent and guilty in the quest for justice. Agent: Susanna Bauknecht, Diogenes Verlag (Switzerland). (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Temptation of Forgiveness :

Named a Most Anticipated Mystery of 2018 by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine

“As always, it’s a pleasure spending time in Brunetti’s world.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Thought-provoking . . . Amid the procedural aspects of the case, vivid descriptions of Venice, and interludes with Brunetti’s pesky superior, Leon offers intelligent reflections on the fallout that can harm both innocent and guilty in the quest for justice.” — Publishers Weekly

Praise for Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries:

“Donna Leon’s Venetian mysteries never disappoint, calling up the romantic sights and sounds of La Serenissima even as they acquaint us with the practical matters that concern the city’s residents.” —Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“Few detective writers create so vivid, inclusive, and convincing a narrative as Donna Leon . . . One of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever.” — Washington Post

“The sophisticated but still moral Brunetti, with his love of food and his loving family, proves a worthy custodian of timeless values and verities.” — Wall Street Journal

“[Leon] uses the relatively small and crime-free canvas of Venice for rips about Italian life, sexual styles and—best of all—the kind of ingrown business and political corruption that seems to lurk just below the surface.” — Chicago Tribune

“Hers is an unusually potent cocktail of atmosphere and event.” — New Yorker

“For those who know Venice, or want to, Brunetti is a well-versed escort to the nooks, crannies, moods, and idiosyncrasies of what residents call La Serenissima, the Serene One . . . Richly atmospheric, [Leon] introduces you to the Venice insiders know.” — USA Today

“Donna Leon is the undisputed crime fiction queen . . . Leon’s ability to capture the social scene and internal politics [of Venice] is first-rate.” — Baltimore Sun

“Terrific at providing, through its weary but engaging protagonist, a strong sense of the moral quandaries inherent in Italian society and culture.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“Brunetti is one of the most attractive policemen in crime fiction today.” — Philadelphia Inquirer

“As always, Brunetti is highly attuned to (and sympathetic toward) the failings of the humans around him.” — Seattle Times

“Leon’s writing trembles with true feeling.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Leon started out with offhand, elegant excellence, and has simply kept it up.” — Guardian

“Compassionate yet incorruptible, Brunetti knows that true justice doesn’t always end in an arrest or a trial.” — Publishers Weekly

“[Brunetti] is a superb police detective—calm, deliberate, and insightful as he investigates with a reflective thoroughness.” — Library Journal

“The appeal of Guido Brunetti, the hero of Donna Leon's long-running Venetian crime series, comes not from his shrewdness, though he is plenty shrewd, nor from his quick wit. It comes, instead, from his role as an Everyman . . . [his life is] not so different from our own days at the office or nights around the dinner table. Crime fiction for those willing to grapple with, rather than escape, the uncertainties of daily life.” — Booklist

“It’s difficult to describe the work of Donna Leon other than in superlatives . . . An annual blessing, a fine series—one of the finest (see what I mean) in the mystery (or any) genre . . . There are few reading joys that equal cracking the binding of a new Leon novel . . . If you have not experienced this world, so exotic and yet so familiar, you can pick up literally any volume in the series and begin a comfortable entry into Brunetti’s Venice.” — BookReporter

“One of the most popular crime series worldwide . . . While the Brunetti books, with their abundance of local color and gastronomic treats, appeal to the fans of the traditional mystery, Leon has something darker and deeper in mind.” — Life Sentence

“No author has delved into Venetian society quite like Leon, whose insider’s view shows how crime seeps throughout the city, touching all strata of society.” — Mystery Scene

From the Publisher

10/01/2017
Commissario Guido Brunetti has his hands full when a friend of his wife asks him to help her son, whom she suspects of drug use. When the boy's father is found unconscious and badly injured at the foot of a gracefully arched Venetian bridge, Brunetti initially suspects the drug connection. But a long-running scam suggested by coupons, found at the victim's office but bearing the name of his elderly aunt, point the investigation in another direction. Twenty-seventh in the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger-winning, internationally best-selling series.

Library Journal

2018-01-10
A dying drug dealer and an elderly woman dressed in head-to-toe satin are among the lifelong Venetians whose apartments we visit, alongside Commissario Guido Brunetti, in Leon's leisurely 27th mystery.As the book opens, Brunetti has two unsettling meetings. First, his boss, the pompous and dim Vice-Questore Giuseppe Patta, calls him into his office to ask about rumors that someone at the Questura has been leaking classified information—and possibly also spreading gossip about Patta's henchman, Lt. Scarpa. Then Brunetti is visited by a woman he recognizes as a colleague of his wife, Paola, who teaches English literature at the university. Professoressa Elisa Crosera thinks her son is in trouble, probably with drugs, and wants Brunetti to solve her problem by arresting whoever's been selling to the students at the boy's expensive private school. "Ah, how wonderful to be able to do that, Brunetti thought. Arrest them and keep them until they went for trial and then have the judges send them to prison....Pity it didn't work that way." Brunetti checks to make sure the Carabinieri is investigating the problem of drugs in the schools and then, "his conscience salved," puts it out of his head—until a week later, when the professoressa's husband is found unconscious at the bottom of a bridge, unlikely to ever wake up. Could he have threatened a drug dealer? Or perhaps something untoward was going on in his job as an accountant? And what does his elegant but infirm aunt have to do with it? Leon provides the usual pleasures of walking the streets of Venice with Brunetti, guided by the "Venetian system of batlike echolocation" that helps him get around. It's good to see Brunetti admiring his colleague Claudia Griffoni's professional skills and also good that he keeps it to himself when he admires her looks. No one wants their favorite Venetian detective sexually harassing another commissario.The mystery isn't much to write home about, though the last few pages do provide Leon's trademark moral ambiguity—even the perpetrator is sympathetic—and, as always, it's a pleasure spending time in Brunetti's world.

Kirkus Reviews