Rating: 
Summary: a political platform
Review: I was rather disappointed by this book. The mystery starts off as rather interesting, but one sees the solution quite early on. What gets very tiresome is the continuous political preaching. Ms Leon is entitled to her opinions, and I do not mind their being mentioned occasionally under the guise of a character's beliefs. But this was really too much: it is supposed to be a mystery, not a political platform.
Rating: 
Summary: The Difference between European & American mystery
Review: I was told once that the difference between Europeans and Americans was perspective. Americans are optimists ; while Europeans are realists. I submit this novel as evidence.In this police procedural, a student is discovered dangling from the ceiling in the dormitory shower at an "elite" military school in Venice. All signs point to suicide, but Commissario Brunetti's innate instincts give him reason to question that diagnosis. Thus, author Donna Leon follows Brunetti and his colleagues as they piece together evidence of murder and conspiracy. Author Leon is acclaimed and well-respected in Europe, having received the Silver Dagger award for fiction in the United Kingdom. She writes well, to say the least. Her main character Brunetti has a heart of gold and a deep cynicism toward Venetian politics and military. His love and other Venetians' love for family is played here against a backdrop of dark hatred and a lust for power that permeates the perpetrators of a young man's murder. Brunetti despises the military and Italian politicos. He describes a history of government by bribery and power brokers. He shows its toll on everyday Venetians and the deterioration of Venetian society. He holds out little hope for correction of this morass. And in the end, this morass prevents the kind of satisfactory ending that marks most American mysteries. Evil defeats good. There are some great characters in this book: a police secretary who has the access to information and the ability to analyze it that will make any librarian proud ; a lovable teddy bear of a detective who turns to a beast at the right moment ; a stubborn, highly-principled and grief-stricken father of the victim ; and Brunetti's long-suffering and supportive wife who provides a moral foundation for this novel. But the humanity of the characters cannot outweigh the fatalistic realism that looms over this novel. Readers of European fiction who do not need a happy ending will enjoy this book for its quality. But American readers accustomed to justice being served will be terribly disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Sensitive and ugly
Review: One imagines the writer Donna Leon to be like Paola, the Venetian Comisario's wife in "Uniform justice": An aristocratic communist,Italian style. There are No other books that I know of where you have very well crafted mysteries, set in the Venice of Venetians. This is not the honeymoon Venice of singing gondoliers.Leons novels are unflinching in their reality, revealing the corruption and class distinctions in a foggy,damp town over-run with tourists.The graciously human qualities of her detective and the ideosyncratic cast of characters are unique. The bonds of family and community are sesitively drawn and touching. Lovers of Venice will eat up every snippet of Venice itself,the walkways on a quiet winters night,a description of a very Venetian luncheon.
In all these mysteries, you are given all the clues. There is no person who comes in the last scene,or some information not revealed.Despite that, I did not guess the riddle in this installment until the very end, or in any of the other mysteries.Very satisfying.
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Rating: 
Summary: A Web of Political Corruption
Review: The military, and political corruption are the targets in Commissario Brunetti's twelfth outing. Once again there is the lovely backdrop of Venice - that city of contradictions, yet it seems with each Brunetti novel Venice as a character is fading more and more. I wish Leon would bring it back to prominence. Although the 'whodunit' here is not difficult to guess, the ending still comes as a surprise. One of the pleasures of the Brunetti novels is in watching the workings of his mind, and how he deals with moral ambiguities, and those ambiguities are at the heart of this novel. Another pleasure is seeing the role his family plays as he solves the puzzle. His wife Paola is as integral to these books as Brunetti himself. The Brunetti novels are way above what one finds in other mysteries these days, and is highly recommended. However, I could have done without the presence of the author's subtle and not so subtle jibes at politics in the United States.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible
Review: This book was so disappointing. Leon writes fairly well but she yearns to write a political commentary more then a murder mystery. In her anti-american/anti-military bias she makes her chararcters look ignorant and provencial. Look elsewhere for a compelling mystery.
Rating:
Summary: A good detective story, lacking perspective
Review: This is the first book by Donna Leon I ever read. I feel involved with the subject for a few reasons: I am Italian, I have lived in Venice and, moreover, I am an alumnus of Collegio Navale Francesco Morosini, which is grossly portraied in the book as the San Martino Academy.
I enjoyed the literary skill of Donna Leon, but this is all.
I read that, although she has chosen to live in Italy, she shuns publicity and refuses to have her books published in the country. No wonder: she obviously settles for what she has achieved. She has concocted a successful formula for making money by providing international public with an exotic, yet realistic setting for her police stories, stuffed with wholesale and one-sided criticism leveled at the Italian society. Although she lives in Italy, which certainly shows through from her topographic accuracy, she appears to be a total alien to the country. Her book is also overflowing with hostility against anything military and displays an understanding of the environment next to nil and charged with prejudice. One of the features of my school was that, in spite of being tough and selective, it contained a cross section of the Italian society, not just the top of the establishment. Furthermore, whoever knows the Italian Navy, who runs the school, will agree that it can hardly be accused of social preferences.
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