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Narrated by David Colacci
Donna LeonUnabridged — 8 hours, 14 minutes
Narrated by David Colacci
Donna LeonUnabridged — 8 hours, 14 minutes
Donna Leon is the ideal author for people who vaguely long for “a good mystery,” meaning a strong story with discreet violence, a wise detective who doesn’t drink or brood too much, and a setting that’s worth the visit. That Leon is also a brilliant writer should only add to the consistently comforting appeal of her Venetian procedurals featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, an immensely likable police detective who takes every murder to heart.
— The New York Times
Suffer the Little Children . . . is terrific at providing, through its weary but engaging protagonist, a strong sense of the moral quandaries inherent in Italian society and culture.
Donna Leon is the undisputed crime fiction queen. . . . [Her] ability to capture the city's social scene and internal politics is first-rate, as always, but this installment carries extra gravity and welcome plot twists that make it one of the series' better efforts.
Leon's sixteenth Commissario Brunetti mystery is brilliant; she has never become perfunctory, never failed to give us vivid portraits of people and of Venice, never lost her fine, disillusioned indignation.
— The New York Times
In Leon's 16th Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery, at once astringent yet lyrical, two rival police forces—Brunetti and his Venetian colleagues and the carabinieri—are both interested in a doctor who illegally adopts an Albanian infant. When three carabinieri break into the doctor's apartment and seize the child at night, they injure the doctor, leaving him mute. Much of the early action takes place in a hospital, and because Venetian hospitals appear only slightly less bureaucratic and Kafkaesque than their stateside counterparts, Leon's marvelous insights into Italian life, so sharp when she explores a military academy in Uniform Justice or glassblowers in Through a Glass, Darkly, aren't as fresh, sinister or compelling here. But once the IVs and bandages give way to vandalism at a pharmacy and the family secrets of a neo-Fascist plumbing tycoon, Leon regains her stride and the novel's last fifth is first-rate and masterful. Leon seldom delivers a "feel good" ending, choosing instead conclusions that are wise and inevitable while still being unsettling. (May)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationCommissario Guido Brunetti of Venice does what it takes to solve a case, whether it's having his aristocratic father-in-law arrange a meeting with a powerful political figure or playing the part of a wealthy infertile man who'll do anything to get a baby. After the Carabinieri (Italy's military police) rouse a prominent pediatrician in the middle of the night for illegally adopting his beloved 18-month-old son, Brunetti investigates related adoptions (in which an Italian man swears, falsely, that he fathered a child by a foreign woman) plus a scam in which pharmacists and doctors bill for bogus appointments. The two cases become entwined after the shop of an "exquisitely moral" pharmacist is vandalized. In her 16th book featuring Brunetti, CWA Silver Dagger Award winner Leon vividly illustrates the power of fatherhood, captures the nuances of Venetian politics, and provides a finish as satisfying as it is tragic. But what lifts this series far above the norm is the humanity of Brunetti and his family and the charm of Venice, where Leon has lived for 25 years. Brunetti and his wife, Paola, separately take delight in the wonders of their city; little wonder that their readers will, too.
—Michele Leber
A baby-snatching leads Commissario Guido Brunetti not to the usual institutional corruption (Through a Glass Darkly, 2006, etc.) but to a more intimate kind of evil. Hours after his adopted son Alfredo calls Dottore Gustavo Pedrolli "papa" for the first time, the doctor and his wife, plumbing heiress Bianca Marcolini, are asleep in their Venice apartment. Five armed men break in, repel Pedrolli's feeble resistance and grab Alfredo. The abductors, amazingly, are carabinieri dispatched by an unknown complainant to end what was apparently an illegal adoption. But why did Captain Marvilli and his masked troops storm so violently into the apartment in the dead of night? After all, as Brunetti reflects, "this was not the United States." And why, given her fury over a brain-threatening injury to her husband, does Signora Marcolini seem so incurious about what's become of her son? These riddles lead Brunetti on a trip to a fertility clinic, where he and his boss's secretary, enterprising Elettra Zorzi, pretend to be a desperate, childless couple, as well as to a round of pharmacists, one of whom treats confidential medical information as a divine sword, and eventually to the unknown tipster, whose motive for betraying the adoptive parents is truly nauseating. Not a single murder, but the story would be strong enough without one even without a climactic assault whose only casualty is the characters' moral certitudes.
Praise for Suffer the Little Children:
“Leon’s sixteenth Commissario Brunetti mystery is brilliant; she has never become perfunctory, never failed to give us vivid portraits of people and of Venice, never lost her fine, disillusioned indignation.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, New York Times
“The most obvious appeal of Donna Leon’s novels about Commissario Guido Brunetti is that they are so supremely civilized . . . Leon’s novels are always a pleasure.”—Washington Post
“First-rate and masterful.”—Publishers Weekly
“In her sixteenth book featuring Brunetti, Leon vividly illustrates the power of fatherhood, captures the nuances of Venetian politics, and provides a finish as satisfying as it is tragic. But what lifts this series far above the norm is the humanity of Brunetti and his family and the charm of Venice . . . [they] take delight in the wonders of their city; little wonder that their readers will, too.”—Library Journal
“Donna Leon is the undisputed crime fiction queen . . . [Her] ability to capture the city’s social scene and internal politics is first-rate, as always, but this installment carries extra gravity and welcome plot twists that make it one of the series’ better efforts.”––Sarah Weinman, Baltimore Sun
“Donna Leon is keeping up an astonishingly high standard . . . A perfect blend of characters, place, mystery, and social issues . . . Her 16th Brunetti novel is also one of her best.”—Times (UK)
“Enthralling . . . The vibrant descriptions of the city, littered liberally throughout the novel, and the details of Venetian family life, keep the series feeling fresh and will hold your curiosity while feeling comfortingly familiar.”—Woman (UK)
“Leon’s fans who use Brunetti as an insider’s guide to Venice will not be disappointed.”—Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“While Leon raises some cogent social points in the course of the usual page-turning stuff, it’s never at the expense of her iron-clad storytelling skill. And Venice is conjured as atmospherically as we’d expect from a writer who does in words what Canaletto and Turner used to do in oils.”—Express (UK)
“If you are a fan of Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti (I am), Suffer the Little Children . . . is essential reading.”—Lady (UK)
| BN ID: | 2940169807578 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 05/01/2007 |
| Series: | Guido Brunetti Series , #16 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
