The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

I'll be leading the discussion and am pretty excited to finally start this series.

This will be a spoiler free zone for the next week to give everyone time to read the book. I plan to post discussion topics after November 24 and will then start an open discussion of the book, complete with spoilers.

Enjoy your reading!

Here's some background about the author I put together earlier this year.



Donna Leon, born in Montclair, New Jersey, is the author of the international best-selling Commissario Guido Brunetti series. The winner of the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, among other awards, Leon was born in New Jersey and has lived in Venice for thirty years.

If you look for any biographical information on Leon, that's pretty much what you're going to find. However, she has participated in a number of very well done interviews that offer a bit more about this intriguing writer. The following is from an interview she conducted with Elaine Petrocelli.

Leon claims that for a period of about 15 years, she never lived on the same continent and often taught English as a second language. In the early 1980's, she was in Saudi Arabia for nine months and the experience was so awful she decided to stop roaming and moved to Venice. That's when she began her teaching assignments with the University of Maryland, which has a contract at the American military bases. She was a lecturer in English Literature for the University of Maryland University College - Europe (UMUC-Europe) in Italy, and then worked as a Professor from 1981 to 1999 at the American military base of Vicenza (Italy). This allowed her to live as an Italian and work in English.

In the early ’80s Donna Leon and a friend were in the dressing room at La Fenice chatting with the conductor and his wife. They began to talk of wanting to murder a certain conductor. Something clicked. Leon said, “And since we were in a conductor’s dressing room, I thought hmm where, how? . . . So I wrote a book. The book sat in a drawer for a year and a half until a friend of mine nudged me. When I say I’m without ambition, I really mean it. This friend nudged me into sending it to a Japanese mystery contest. And when the letter came back I didn’t know what it was. I was invited there and it won.”

This led to a two-book contract and soon Donna Leon’s career in crime fiction was flying. Guido Brunetti is the detective who was born that day in the dressing room of La Fenice. In each book we learn more about his background and about his family and friends. When asked more about him, Leon states, “Well he’s a grown-up and he has a life.”
Leon reviewed crime fiction for several years for the Sunday Times of London. She likes books by Laura Wilson, P. D. James, Ruth Rendel, Reginal Hill, and Frances Fyfield. She prefers to have the violence take place off the page. “I don’t think it’s good for us to read that stuff, more so to write that stuff. I’ve never had a television and I don’t go to the movies so I am perhaps more attuned to the vision of violence. I just can’t do it.”

Also interesting is the fact that her books are not translated into Italian and, according to Leon, never will be. It's her choice because she doesn't want to live where she's famous and be treated in a deferential way, which goes against her ideas of social intercourse. Her books are translated into over twenty other languages. They are wildly popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

I hope people who read this book for the first time enjoy it as much as I did and it makes them want to read more books in the series. Interesting info on Donna Leon, Jonetta. I look forward to the discussions.

I hope people who read this book for the first time enjoy it as much as I did and it makes them want to read more books in the series. Interesting info on Donna Leon, Jonetta. I look forward to the discussions.

It's been awhile since I read this one. I'll have to reread it to join in the discussion. I can't remember if this first book in the series has the two things that I find particularly engaging about the Inspector Brunetti books: descriptions of family meals and the references to locations in Venice which give such a feeling of place.

I'm just happy that a book I voted for won. It's not a feeling I'm used too!! Off to order my copy right now.

I read this about a year ago. I'm interested to see what others think about it.

I have all the Brunetti books. When we get to the discussion I'll share what I think is her reason for no Italian translation.

I must admit I was really surprised a book I recommended was selected, too! This should be an interesting discussion.

Still waiting for my copy - damn second class post!!

Read this some time ago and off to dig out my copy.

This is now a spoiler zone! Topics for discussion may now be posted for an open conversation about the book.

Posted below are individual topics for discussion. You can post your response as a reply to that comment OR copy and paste the question into your comment and then add your response, whichever works best for you.

I hope you enjoyed the book.

1. What impressions of Commissario Brunetti did the author create? How would you characterize him (his competencies, nature and passions)?

2. The setting is a prominent element of the story. How did it factor in your level of enjoyment? How well do you think the author captured the spirit and sense of Venice?

3. The story is presented as an Italian point of view in English, effectively providing a blend of Italian and English lexicons. Your thoughts on this approach? Did it work well?  Why or why not?

4. Who was the most interesting character for you and why?

5. Did you find Brunetti's investigative style unique or reminiscent of other fictional detectives you've encountered?

6. This book was published in 1992. Where the attitudes about homosexuality in tandem with general attitudes of that time or unique to Italian culture?

7. What did you think of Brunetti's decision to omit Elizabeth's role in Helmut's suicide from his final report?

8. Did you have any inkling that Helmut was a child molester?

9. Brunetti appeared to have a curious relationship with Brett Lynch. Your thoughts about what it may or may not have been?

10. What is your overall opinion of the story? Did the author provide anything uncommon in her characterization of Commissario Brunetti and the cast supporting him? Do you plan to continue the series?

11. Where there any moments or scenes that were especially memorable?

12. Any other comments/observations?

Jonetta wrote: "12. Any other comments/observations?"

I wish I lived in Venice!

What I really like is now normal Brunetti is. He's not an alcoholic or extreme workaholic. He has a reasonable, normal homelife.

I have not finished the book, but I have read it before. I think the setting is essential to the enjoyment of the story, Venice almost becomes another character in the novel. I also agree with Donna that it is nice to have a detective who is not suffering marital breakdown or alcoholism for a change!

Yeah, the world weary detective has been done to death. Similary, though, you don't want the novel turning into an advert for the Venice tourist board. It's a fine line between making the city a character and boring people to death with descriptions of every statue and fountain.

I thought there was a good balance in describing the lovely elements of the city with harsh reality. Venice certainly has its share of problems to go along with its charm. I felt she did a pretty good job of painting a realistic picture of what it's like to live there.

I enjoyed the picture of Venice provided by Donna Leon. I always like a book that incorporates food and Donna's incorporation of the drinks and food, either in restaurants or at home is so well done.

I think she generally does a decent job in showing what is good about Venice and what is bad. I've never been to Venice but I think we get a picture of it. And, I, too, like that Brunetti is more like a real person than many detectives that are portrayed.

It is a fine line, but I think Donna Leon manages to walk it really well. Venice is portrayed realistically, but the characters dominate and not the setting. I liked Brunetti as well - I don't mind the world weary detective, but it was good to have somebody whose life wasn't imploding for a change.

I'm all in favour of cities becoming a 'character' as much as the protagonist, but there is a danger that the city overwhelms the protagonist if that makes sense? It's an easy trap to fall into IMO.

Are you saying it did here?

Jonetta, I read Death in La Fenice in 2009 and the Anonymous Venetian in 2011. I liked both books. Thank you for the great questions. Good Job.

Jonetta wrote: "Are you saying it did here?"

That remains to be seen, as I'm still reading the book, but IMO, the signs are not good. To be fair, it's been a decent read so far.

Ahh. You may change your mind by the end of the book.

@Georgia Thank you!

Jonetta wrote: "Ahh. You may change your mind by the end of the book.

@Georgia Thank you!"

I do like the Jungian idea of what effect does your environment have on a person and vice versa, but sometimes the city fills the void where good characters and plot should be.

I understand that perspective and there may have been a bit of that. It occurred to me that Brunetti was as much a part of the city as Venice was a part of him...it's governmental politics, the unspoken communication norms of the residents, the ecological decay along with its charm.

Jonetta wrote: "I understand that perspective and there may have been a bit of that. It occurred to me that Brunetti was as much a part of the city as Venice was a part of him...it's governmental politics, the uns..."

I agree with you - do we see the decay and rot or do we see the beauty and art? and what does Brunetti - metaphorically - see in crime?

Donna wrote: "What I really like is now normal Brunetti is. He's not an alcoholic or extreme workaholic. He has a reasonable, normal homelife."

I like this about Brunetti as well, even though I would take it a bit farther because he seems to be a bit of a coward when he runs out of the old lady house scared to death. Also, I liked that he did not have the urge to cheat on his wife.

@Penny From that perspective, Brunetti was an enigma. It wasn't always clear what he saw. The ending was a bit illuminating though as he sheltered Elizabeth.

@Brian That was puzzling and it occurred to me that there was more to that fear than from the old woman. About cheating on his wife....there was certainly an odd attraction to Brett Lynch.

Penny wrote: "Jonetta wrote: "I understand that perspective and there may have been a bit of that. It occurred to me that Brunetti was as much a part of the city as Venice was a part of him...it's governmental p..."

Exactly what I was trying to say!!

@Brian That was puzzling and it ..."

Is the Brett Lynch thing explained more in further books?

This is the only book in the series I've read.

Close to finishing it, so I'll hold back on my comments for a while to let others catch up.

It has been some time since I read this series. I read a few books and I think Brett Lynch appears again in Acqua Alta, but I may be incorrect. I know Donna Leon said in an old Bookclub podcast I downloaded, in which Death at La Fenice was discussed, that she wanted Brunetti to be a man she liked and admired.

I didn't feel that Brunetti was so much scared of the old woman as suddenly shocked/thrown into panic by her anger and the realisation of what had happened.

Currently reading and also the only book in the series I have read. About 20% through it

@Susan I did some checking and Brett does reappear in Acqua Alta.

I can't believe I remembered that actually Jonetta - I must have seen it mentioned somewhere!