The Girl of His Dreams

Book was in good description as described. But did have significant edge chipping and yellowing. Shipping was fast. Would have given five stars except for flimsy packaging which allows the books to become damaged in transit.

This mystery novel in Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti series, set in an increasingly touristy Venice, is shorter and more clear than her earlier works. I simply couldn't stop reading it once I'd started, and enjoyed it as much for the way it illuminates the inner workings of Italian society as for the murder mystery aspects. The view of how handicapped the law is in Italy is startling, as is the picture of the Roma people. An extremely enjoyable mystery.

Donna Leon, a long time resident of Venice, has created another winner in this series about Commissario Guido Brunetti, his delightful family and friends in the water-logged city of Venice, Italy. Donna Leon has the great talent of making her fictional characters such as Brunetti come to life..as a reader you are there with them; experiencing their daily life and trevails in a way no other author I've read can do. I have only been in Venice once and that was too much but I know I would love it being there with Brunetti and his fellow Venetians.

The 17th entry in Donna Leon's wonderful Venetian series has not one but two cases for her marvelous policeman, Commissario Guido Brunetti. The mysterious head of a "fringe" religious cult may or may not be a con man, bilking the faithful of their cash, and an old acquaintance asks Guido to investigate. But before he gets far in that case, the body of an 11-year-old girl is fished out of the Grand Canal. She was a "Gypsy," one of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants plaguing the European countryside, and she apparently died while committing a robbery. Brunetti is determined to bring her killer to justice. Fans of this series will feel right at home with Guido, his family, and his colorful colleagues in the police force. If you're a newcomer, start with an earlier title (preferably the first one in the series, DEATH AT LA FENICE) and catch up with the rest of us. You won't regret it. Along with P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, Elizabeth George, Peter Robinson, and a few others, Donna Leon is writing one of the most accomplished, literate, literary mystery series available. Recommended.

As reader comments on Mr. Nicholas's review have already made clear, this is probably not the Donna Leon novel to start with if you're new to the series. Start at the beginning with "Death at La Fenice" and get to know Commissario Brunetti, his family, his co-workers and his beautiful, corrupt city of Venice. If you fall in love with all of them, as so many of us have come to do, then you'll probably want to read the rest in something close to chronological order if you can. Here's the list, in order, updated in May 2010: "Death at La Fenice," "Death in a Strange Country" "Dressed for Death," "Death and Judgment," "Acqua Alta," "Quietly in Their Sleep," "A Noble Radiance, " "Fatal Remedies," "Friends in High Places," "A Sea of Troubles," "Wilful Behavior," "Uniform Justice," "Doctored Evidence," "Blood from a Stone," "Through a Glass, Darkly," "Suffer the Little Children," "The Girl of His Dreams," "About Face" and "A Question of Belief." This 17th in the series is a real treat, as expected. And Leon's in top form, again as expected. The murder at the heart of it delves into the gypsy life of Venice; the secondary story deals with a priest who's trying to unmask a clergyman he suspects is a crook--clearly one of them's a bad guy, but which? And before it's all over with, the whole Brunetti family, their in-laws, the Vianellos and Signorina Elettra, will all have gotten involved. Sidenote: Once upon a time, presumably for privacy reasons, Leon, an American who lives in Italy, would not let her novels be published in either country. Happily--starting with "Uniform Justice" in 2003--that changed, and one by one, but not in any particular order, the earlier Brunetti novels all eventually became available here..the 3rd, 4th and 6th under different titles. So if you ever come across "The Anonymous Venetian," "A Venetian Reckoning" or "The Death of Faith" please know these are not new Leons; they're just the British titles of "Dressed for Death," "Death and Judgment" and "Quietly in Their Sleep."

As reader comments on Mr. Nicholas's review have already made clear, this is probably not the Donna Leon novel to start with if you're new to the series. Start at the beginning with "Death at La Fenice" and get to know Commissario Brunetti, his family, his co-workers and his beautiful, corrupt city of Venice. If you fall in love with all of them, as so many of us have come to do, then you'll probably want to read the rest in something close to chronological order if you can. Here's the list, in order, updated in March 2009: "Death at La Fenice," "Death in a Strange Country" "Dressed for Death," "Death and Judgment," "Acqua Alta," "Quietly in Their Sleep," "A Noble Radiance, " "Fatal Remedies," "Friends in High Places," "A Sea of Troubles," "Wilful Behavior," "Uniform Justice," "Doctored Evidence," "Blood from a Stone," "Through a Glass, Darkly" "Suffer the Little Children," "The Girl of His Dreams" and "About Face." This 17th in the series is a real treat, as expected. And Leon's in top form, again as expected. The murder at the heart of it delves into the gypsy life of Venice; the secondary story deals with a priest who's trying to unmask a clergyman he suspects is a crook--clearly one of them's a bad guy, but which? And before it's all over with, the whole Brunetti family, their in-laws, the Vianellos and Signorina Elettra, will all have gotten involved. Sidenote: Once upon a time, presumably for privacy reasons, Leon, an American who lives in Italy, would not let her novels be published in either country. Happily--starting with "Uniform Justice" in 2003--that changed, and one by one, but not in any particular order, the earlier Brunetti novels all eventually became available here..the 3rd, 4th and 6th under different titles. So if you ever come across "The Anonymous Venetian," "A Venetian Reckoning" or "The Death of Faith" please know these are not new Leons; they're just the British titles of "Dressed for Death," "Death and Judgment" and "Quietly in Their Sleep."