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From Publishers Weekly
In this superb novel, Leon's latest in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series (A Noble Radiance, etc.), the Venetian police detective and family man is summoned to the exclusive San Martino Military Academy, where Cadet Ernesto Moro has been found dead, hanging in the lavatory. The other cadets and the academy brass give a chilly reception to any "civilians" who trespass into their midst, including the Venetian police. Believing Cadet Moro was the victim of homicide rather than suicide, Brunetti traces a sinister trail that leads to the dead boy's father, a doctor-turned-politician who once revealed then ducked the ramifications of a military procurement scandal. This is not the Venice of Thomas Mann or Henry James-the palazzos, gondoliers and Doges' monuments are all but overlooked. Leon's city is winter-cold and gray, with corruption rather than gilt glinting through the fog, and a culture in the grip of a Kafkaesque bureaucracy that runs on secrets and bribes. Humane and intelligent, a good man working in an impossible system, Brunetti displays an acerbic, economical wisdom. The plot flows along like the Adriatic tide through a narrow canal-swift, none-too-clean and inevitable. This is an outstanding book, deserving of the widest audience possible, a chance for American readers to again experience a master practitioner's art.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* American readers, having endured seven long years without a new Guido Brunetti novel, can now celebrate the return of Leon's world-weary Venetian commissario. Brunetti, like Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen, is beyond idealism; he swims freely in corrupt waters yet attempts to carve out a separate peace for himself in the way he does his work and lives his life. Both are challenged by his latest case, involving the apparent suicide of a cadet at a Venetian military academy. The boy's father, a reform-minded politician, knows his son didn't kill himself but refuses to talk. As Brunetti slogs through the usual mire of corruption and cover-up, he ponders "how long it would be possible to go back and forth between his professional world and his private world without introducing the contamination of the first to the second." It is that private world--Brunetti's family life--that drives this wonderfully warmhearted, tragicomic series. Brunetti's interactions with his wife say much in few words, as when he attempts to criticize her tolerant attitude by chiding, "Love before truth?" and she replies, "Love before everything, I'm afraid, Guido." Those two words, "I'm afraid," transform a potentially sentimental, even trite, exchange into a something very different: yes, love trumps justice, but living with that fact isn't all romance. It's high time this series earns the accolades in the U.S. it has been receiving in Europe for years. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Running out of steam... (SPOILER ENCLOSED),
By A Customer
This review is from: Uniform Justice (Hardcover)
A less-than-successful Donna Leon mystery is better than just about anyone else's best, but I must say that "Uniform Justice" left me quite disappointed. The actual whodunit side of her novels has never been what Leon does well; she excels at creating atmosphere, and her characterizations are marvelous. (Brunetti and Signorina Elettra are two of my favorite mystery characters of all time.) In "Uniform Justice," however, the mystery is remarkably perfunctory. We all know that the young Moro didn't kill himself, and by mid-book we pretty much know why (if not by whose hand) he was killed. When we do find out, it's not that much of a suprise, nor is much done about it. Perhaps this is an aspect of the Leon mysteries that is beginning to wear thin for me: the Italian judicial system is so rife with corruption that rarely are the killers brought to anything remotely like justice. The books all end the same way, with no-one being punished, nothing being accomplished by Brunetti's investigation. So, what's the point? Part of the satisfaction of crime novels is the pleasure of seeing the wicked punished. When they never are, it leaves me, as a reader, feeling that the whole enterprise was something of a waste of time. With each new Leon novel I pick up, I resign myself to the fact that no matter whodunit, it won't really matter at all. So from page one my expectations are low. I would love to experience, just once, the "wow" I feel at the end of a Michael Connelly or Magdalen Nabb mystery. Leon seems to be entrenched in a formula. I suppose it's proven successful for her -- but not necessarily for me.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Look Beyond the Obvious,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Uniform Justice (Mass Market Paperback)
Uniform Justice doesn't match up very well to the excellent Wilful Behaviour that precedes it in this fine series. In the best books in the series, you find a great deal of layering where one character's life and reading provide dimensions to the meaning of the other characters' lives. That layering is mostly missing in this story, and Brunetti's investigation seems more ham-handed than necessary. The resolution will please few readers, as well.A hung-over student in a military academy fears he's seeing an oversized bat in the bathroom where he goes for relief from his thirst. Upon closer examination, the "bat" turns out to be a dead cadet who is dead by strangulation. Is it suicide? All indications point that way except the words of his aunt. Naturally, Commissario Guido Brunetti begins to investigate as though it's a murder. Undoubtedly, having the dead youth be similar in age to his son has something to do with that decision. But it's not such a serious investigation. The father refuses to talk to him, and he doesn't dig into the background of the family or of the military academy very seriously. Vice-Questore Patta is friendly with the head of the school which makes matters somewhat more difficult. But due to the connections of Signorina Elettra, the outlines of an alternative theory begin to develop. With that theory in hand, however, Brunetti blunders more than once. The story's other problem is that the scheme that Brunetti ends up investigating doesn't seem all that probable in some of its more extreme dimensions. The family's reaction to the plot also seems more than a little unlikely. As a result, I found it hard to take the story seriously. It just didn't ring true. Be careful of the enemies you make.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rich novel,
By
This review is from: Uniform Justice (Mass Market Paperback)
Another rich and beautifully written mystery, the story seems real rather than fictional; more true to life. It is evident in this book that Ms Leon has an aversion to corruption in the justice system. This author is a master in my view in developing atmosphere, her characters are so real and the plot very believable.
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