A Question of Belief (A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery)

by Donna Leon

Book Overview

Donna Leon's bestselling series featuring the principled, warmhearted Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti has won her countless fans, critical acclaim, and international renown as one of the world's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143118951
• Release Date: April 2011
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.6" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Better than described.

Book was described as being in GOOD condition. Was actually in VERY GOOD condition. Would give 5 stars except flimsy packaging allows books to become damaged in transit.

Another winner from Donna Leon

I have read nearly all the Guido Brunetti books. All of them have been wonderful naratives, that give you a real feeling for the main character and his family. You experience the sights and sounds of Venice plus you will drool at the descriptions of the tasty dishes Guido enjoys. Donna Leon's books are always filled with great insights into the workings of the local government and some of the corrupt leaders. You will enjoy this one as much as other books in the series.

Descriptions of Heat and Humidity So Vivid You'll Feel Yourself in the Story

"Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?" -- Proverbs 6:27-28 (NKJV) I love this book! If you liked any books in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series, you must be sure to read A Question of Belief. The descriptions of what it is like to be in Venice during the dog days of summer while you dodge tourists and pigeons couldn't be finer. The book also contains two intriguing mysteries that will easily hold your attention to the end. In addition, Ms. Leon does a superb job of developing the relationships among the characters in ways that will draw you more deeply into the story. As the book jacket indicates, Brunetti is drawn into two eyebrow-raising situations by others. One is a reliable member of the local Venetian bureaucracy and the other is Brunetti's colleague, Ispettore Vianello. Such men cannot be ignored. In addition, other events intervene to force Brunetti's hand . . . just as he's about to enjoy his dreams of sleeping comfortably in the cold, crisp air of the Alps. At first blush, both situations seem to be simple to understand, but difficult to change. Alas, that's like believing that one of those mirrors that makes everyone seem tall and thin is the truth. Before the book ends, Brunetti has a murder mystery to drag him all over Venice in mid-day. You'll sweat along with him while he tracks down the truth. Even if it reminds you of summer weather, read the book on a pleasant day and you'll find the descriptions to be fun to contemplate. Also, you'll remember to take care when you visit Venice. I can well remember continually seeking air conditioning during one August there. Here's a tip: The Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in her former home on the Grand Canal is nice and cool. You have to keep art cool. It's good for the people, too. Enjoy!

"We pass through centuries, and we learn nothing." Guido Brunetti, p 234

"seamlessly blending straightforward descriptions of events, pointed moral lessons, and tightly-focused dramatic accounts, his historiography contains deep, and often pessimistic, insights into the workings of the human mind and the nature of power." Wikipedia on the historical writings of Publius Cornelius Tacitus. Guido Brunetti -- whose austere view of Italian life, both public and private, underpins this remarkable series -- is reading Tacitus rather than Russian history. His books on Russian history are in the mountains with his vacationing family, while Brunetti swelters around Venice, returning home with a pizza to eat on his terrace "while drinking two beers and reading Tacitus, the bleakness of whose vision of politics was the only thing he could tolerate in this current state." (201) As the Wikipedia quote suggests (oh come on, tell me you don't short-cut with it) Tacitus manages clarity of narrative and psychological insight while delivering a moral lesson. So, too, does Donna Leon. As other reviewers note, most of the loving and entertaining scenes of Brunetti/Falier family life are missing from this book. There are no luscious meals detailed from shopping through prep work, from serving to savoring, from second-helpings to dishwashing. Figs and prosciutto are all we get, and briefly. And yet it is faith in that family-life which constitutes the center holding Brunetti's cosmos intact. Early in the book we hear a shockingly frank rant from Paola about the power of belief over reason. Sparked by the sight of Brunetti's proposed reading on the Russian Revolution, Paola denounces her youthful political ideals in the most brutal yet of her recent self-fashionings: "To think that I voted Communist. Of my own free will, I voted for them. . . . You know me well enough to know I'm not much for shame or guilt, but I will forever feel guilty that I voted for those people, that I refused to listen to common sense to believe what I didn't want to believe." Brunetti tries to comfort: "They never had any real power here." Paola refuses to shelter in that argument: "I'm not talking about them, Guido; I'm talking about me. That I could have been so stupid and have been so stupid for so long." There is the heart of this narrative, the failure of reason in the face of the desire to believe. The two plots both arise from this moral and intellectual battle, but the third element of the novel - Brunetti's reading - is more obscure than in other of Leon's books. Looking at the title, I assumed he would be reading Plato. Turning the early pages, seeing Leon set up a series of ethical dilemmas involving the shadows on the wall of Plato's cave, I looked in vain for mention of The Republic. But Leon is more subtle than that. The sad deceptions we find here - card-readers duping wealthy women, greedy contractors subverting the judicial system, Patta's relentless fetishizing of appearance over reality - aren't worthy of the gran

Deadly heat, deadly fraud, deadly closets--Venice in August

A clever Commissario Brunetti mystery with some edge and more than a little seasonable realism about the great Italian tourist mecca. Whlle Venice sweats out a torrid summer and its more practical citizens evacuate to cooler climes, crime, passion and bad behavior party on in the city. Bad news for Guido Brunetti, who must forego two weeks cooling off in the Italian Alps when passion becomes murder as a respectable and respected civil servant is found murdered. Meanwhile, Inspector Vianello's beloved Aunt Anita is apparently being fleeced by a soothsayer, distressing the Inspector and Brunetti, who feels his colleague's pain. So, much for unfortunate stay-behinds to do in an environment that author Leon has vividly presented as intolerably unpleasant and where every twitch of the body causes a torrent of sweat. Even the coolest (in all ways) character of all, the inestimable Signorina Elettra, is looking a little dewy. With the Brunetti family out of the immediate picture, "A Question of Belief", has a higher quotient of police procedural work than some other Leon stories, which works very well as a change. The focus is on the two unrelated crimes that need sorting and this inevitably leads to some very engaging character portraits and stories of human behavior and tragedy that author Leon is skilled at telling. To be sure, the story includes a backdrop of venality, governmental inefficiency and lack of accountability that the author confronts--through Brunetti and family/colleagues--in every book of this terrific series. All of this is related with great wit, humor and credibility by a writer who is unusually well-connected to her characters and her adopted city. And best of all, respects her readers. Kind of a footnote here--there were several times while I was reading this book that I would have liked to asked author Leon what was up with a seeming preoccupation with the tramezzini appear several times in the story, in detail. Was she fantasizing about these snacks while pulling an all-nighter with the book? It caused me to head for the nearest Italian restaurant here in northwest Washington in the middle of the novel. A great sacrifice to connect with art.

Leon's 'Question' has the answers: a great read!

Venice this summer has been hotter than blazes, hotter than Hades, hotter than Dante's inner circles and what must a police commasario to do to get out of the city for a vacation sure to be a cool respite from all the law and order stuff he deals with year-round? For Donna Leon's inimitable Guido Brunetti it seems the summer's heat is interminable but there's a light (a cool breeze?) just ahead--a vacation to the Alps to cool things off. At least that's what he's hoping. "Not only was it too hot to think about crossing the city to go home for lunch; it was too hot to think about eating." Alas, in Ms Leon's 19th Brunetti case, "A Question of Belief," this is not to be. While Brunetti and all of Venice may be suffering from the summer's heat, Leon's readers find this latest installment in a very successful series to be just what the doctor (or policeman) ordered: Leon at her best. A taut, tersely written tale that reaffirms our faith in this very popular author, whose talents and abilities in this genre keep producing winners! Before Brunetti can take this family on vacation, needless to say, a murder is announced, to quote Miss Marple. And, as usual with the Leon series, subplots support the storyline quite smartly. Inspector Vianello's aunt in mixed up with a charlatan horoscope guru; a corrupt judicial system is wrecking continued havoc and injustice as some judges become suspect; and the ramifications of the central murder are ever-widening. As usual Leon touches upon important social issues (the environment, illegal immigration, the country's governmental and financial corruptions) and blends these into her narrative cleverly and smoothly, never detracting from the bigger picture: who done it and how are we going to make the arrest? Crime, Brunetti says, is usually reduced to money, money, money or sex, sex, sex, with Greed playing the major role. As Brunetti's friend Brusca tells him, as he's revealing details about the judicial system's "irregularities": "It's strange. We think that love of music can run in families, or maybe the ability to paint. So why not greed?" And greed it is. Then when the murder occurs, an official within the court system, there are more complications. An enigmatic, totally dedicated civil servant Araldo Fontana is found bludgeoned to death in the courtyard of his apartment building. It is left up to the incorruptible Brunetti and his team to work through the maze of misinformation, disinformation, lies, deceit, cover-up, and even a couple of red herrings. Along the way, Leon's set of the "usual suspects" are there to impede the progress and these include his boss Vice-Questore Patta and the ever-pugnacious Lt. Scarpa. And, it seems, an indictment of the entire Italian bureaucracy. As Leon says, "It was seldom, after all these years, that Brunetti could be moved to indignation by some new revelation of the skill with which his fellow citizens managed to slip