Yet another Commissario Brunetti mystery

Readers of this blog know that every time Donna Leon publishes a new book in the Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series, it is read here as soon as the library stocks it, and if not Amazon comes to the rescue.  These are the elegant crime pieces set in Venice and peopled by Brunetti and his family, the same group of detectives, growing older when thinking about the young people and aging when thinking about others.  Like Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series set in Sicily, the reader naturally ages along with the characters.  There is some interesting identification.

Leon has written around 20 of these books, all built around characters and their daily life.  Meals are detailed at every turn, conversations about daily life can be low key but meaningful, and the patterns of life in Venice as it changes are a backdrop.  Unlike many, or most, crime books written by U.S. based writers, these mysteries are generally solved by intelligence rather than beatings, shootings, stabbings, or sex.   The writing is unforced.  The books are relaxing reads that usually last here no more than two days.

"The Golden Egg" is the latest book.  What a relief.  Like any writer of entertainment literature, a body of work can be uneven, and the last two books had seemed slightly sub-par relative to others.  This one is not.  If this is what one is looking for, it is a perfect reflection of all of the best characteristics of the series.