Brunetti, who airily tells his wife Paola, “I don’t do ethical,” spends less time than usual (Drawing Conclusions, 2011,...
The death of an inoffensive veterinarian takes Commissario Guido Brunetti once more into the heart of the human beast.
Even after the victim is identified—and it’s a good long time before he is—the name of Dottor Andrea Nava’s killer seems less mysterious than the question of why someone, anyone, would have stabbed him in the back three times and dumped his body into a Venetian canal. Although he’s estranged from his wife, Anna Doni, she faints from either grief or guilt when Brunetti and his friend, Inspector Lorenzo Vianello, break the news to her. Clara Baroni, his assistant at the Clinica Amico Mio veterinary practice, can shed no light on his death. And although his sad little dalliance with Giulia Borelli, Director Alessandro Papetti’s assistant at the slaughterhouse where he moonlighted part time, may have threatened his marriage, it hardly seems a weighty enough motive for murder. It’s not until after a tour of the slaughterhouse brings Brunetti and Vianello up against the horrid realities behind the meat they placidly consume every day that Brunetti realizes that carcasses aren’t the most bestial presences lurking there.
Brunetti, who airily tells his wife Paola, “I don’t do ethical,” spends less time than usual (Drawing Conclusions, 2011, etc.) butting heads with his nemesis, Vice-Questore Giuseppe Patta. But his conspiratorial dealings with his omni-competent assistant Signora Elettra and his suave attempts at acting dumb while he’s questioning his few suspects are equally rewarding.Pub Date: April 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2023-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2012
The charming heroine has all too little to work with in this overlong and not very mysterious series opener.
Dirty deals are covered up by murder.
In a departure from her Flower Shop series (Tulips Too Late, 2018, etc.), Collins introduces a divorced mother who’s returned to Michigan and the suffocating bosom of her Greek family. Athena works at her father John Spencer’s garden center along with her younger sister, Delphi. Under the name Goddess Anon, she blogs out her frustrations with her family, who, failing to recognize that they’re the subjects of the blog, find it highly amusing. Working late one night, Athena disturbs a man trying to remove something from a life-size marble statue of her namesake that her grandfather had recently purchased, planning to use it to adorn his diner. Talking to strange men alone is not a wise idea, but Case Donnelly’s extraordinary good looks and his tale that the valuable statue actually belongs to him turn her head. The statue, however, is the least of her worries, for all the shops on Greene Street, known as Little Greece, are about to be torn down by powerful developer Grayson Talbot Jr., whose late father had planned to cancel the project. Athena, who’s dating annoying lawyer Kevin Coreopsis to keep her mother happy, soon becomes involved in protecting Case, who’s been seen leaving the scene of Talbot employee Harry Pepper’s murder. It seems a strange coincidence that everyone who was opposed to tearing down Little Greece has suddenly died. Believing Case innocent, Athena hides him on her grandfather’s rarely used boat, and a haircut, a beard, and some bronzer turn him into a Greek fisherman. As the leaders of the Greek community fight to save their shops, Athena attracts Talbot’s interest. He tries to bribe her by offering both an area for the diner and a large apartment for her grandparents in the new construction he plans. Her refusal puts her in danger from someone who’s already killed twice.
The charming heroine has all too little to work with in this overlong and not very mysterious series opener.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2433-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Neatly incorporates history, social commentary, and a satisfying mystery in one appealing package. More, please!
A fashionable Australian private eye finds herself embroiled in a difficult case just after World War II.
As a war correspondent, Billie Walker witnessed some terrible things in Germany and still carries many burdens, including the disappearance of her journalist husband. Back home in Sydney, however, she has returned to full-time work as owner and investigator of a private inquiry agency she inherited from her late father. She even has Sam, a brave and affable secretary-cum-assistant, himself a former soldier. When a woman asks Billie to find her missing teenage son, clues lead to The Dancers, an elite club, and Georges Boucher, owner of an expensive auction house. It seems that an old family photo of a particular necklace is at the heart of the case, but who has taken Adin Brown, and to what end? At the same time, Billie's secret informant Shyla reports on a man in the country who has been mistreating girls. Of course, both cases are related, and the truth behind Adin’s abduction, in a very Dashiell Hammett–like turn of events, involves Nazi war criminals, stolen treasures, and a prostitution ring. Billie is a smart, glamorous, kind, and well-turned-out woman, and her addition to the world of literary private detectives is welcome and deserved. She carries a bit of the hard-boiled tradition on her shoulders—the vulnerability, the brashness—while providing a completely feminine perspective on both the crimes and the approach to crime-solving. Moss clearly did a lot of research for the novel, including a great deal in fashion and sewing, so sometimes the details and descriptions can be lengthier than necessary, but gradually, as the pace picks up, these details serve to help us get to know the characters on multiple levels. The setting feels simultaneously familiar and exotic.
Neatly incorporates history, social commentary, and a satisfying mystery in one appealing package. More, please!Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-18265-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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