The Golden Egg
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2.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
The twenty-second instalment in the internationally acclaimed, bestselling Commissario Brunetti series
'The familiar characters and Venetian location are described with remarkable freshness and, as always, the edifying result is both amusing and thought-provoking.' Sunday Telegraph
'Donna Leon has a wonderful feeling for the social complexities of Venice, where corruption is as old and deep and treacherous as the canals.' Daily Mail
A New York Times Bestseller
When a local man is found dead after overdosing on sleeping pills, Commissario Brunetti's wife can't help but ask him to investigate. The sweet, simple-minded man had worked at their local dry cleaner and Paola loathes the idea that he lived and died without anyone noticing or helping him.
But what seems to be an open-and-shut case of suicide soon proves to be anything but. Brunetti soon discovers that there is nothing on the man: no birth certificate, no passport, no driver's license, no credit cards. Stranger still, the dead man's mother refuses to speak to the police. As secrets unravel, Brunetti begins to suspect that an aristocratic family might be somehow connected to the mystery . . .
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Few series reach the milestone of 22 books, and even fewer retain the pithy elegance of the first—but Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti sequence achieves both. In each entry in the much-loved mystery series, the warmth and comfort of police detective Brunetti’s Venice is underlined by a keen but quiet outrage at the injustices of society, lending the books a potency that keeps us coming back. Here, the killing of a deaf-mute man forces Brunetti to confront the way the community remains willfully oblivious to the plight of the disabled.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Commissario Guido Brunetti, out of a sense of guilt and at the urging of his compassionate wife, investigates the suspicious death of a disabled man, Davide Cavanella, in Leon's intriguing 22nd mystery featuring the crafty Venetian police inspector (after 2012's Beastly Things). Davide's mother is unwilling to discuss his death. Worse, there's no official evidence of Davide's existence: he apparently was never born and never went to school, saw a doctor, or received a passport. The colorful locals are uncooperative. Brunetti's understanding of the Venetian bureaucracy, which operates smoothly on bribery and familial connections, allows his subordinates to enlist the help of various aunts and cousins, as is neatly shown in a subplot involving the mayor and his son. Appreciative of feminine charms, the deeply uxorious Brunetti amply displays the keen intelligence and wry humor that has endeared this series to so many.
