Aqua Alta and Quietly in Their Sleep: two very short reviews

Slowly I am working my way through Donna Leon's marvelous books.

Aqua Alta and Quietly in Their Sleep are the fifth and sixth of the Guido Brunetti series.

Strangely, I had significantly different reactions to these books.

I loved Aqua Alta. I found it fast-paced, exciting, and satisfying. The topic (fine art fraud) is a timeless problem, and so the book seems as fresh and relevant now as it was thirty years ago. Brunetti assists our victim, deals with the criminals, and still has time to spend time with his son's struggles in high school. And I always find the business of art fascinating. I'm much more an art admirer than an art collector, so I've still got lots to learn about how the money side works. Oh, and of course you get to spend those delicious hours with Brunetti enjoying the beauty and charm of Venice.

Quietly in Their Sleep, on the other hand, left me flummoxed. It starts off with the topic area of nursing care facilities, but then transforms into a plot about the church (the nursing homes are run by the church). For the longest time, it's not even clear if there's a crime or not, but it turns out that the crime is much less about the nursing and much more about the church. And then we get into the secret societies. By that point, I was well and thoroughly confused, as was Brunetti. Worse, even though Brunetti eventually figures out the actual crime, he hits a solid wall as it turns out that the church is more powerful than the state in this area, and he must leave the actual dispensation of justice to Paola's father and his mysterious powers. Hmmph! By the end of the book I was feeling tired and a bit cranky.

So I rode a roller-coaster with this two volumes, but overall I've still got enough momentum that I'll be sailing on through some more of Leon's work.