Death in a Strange Country (Brunetti 2)

Travel Guide

Venice is a stunning city at the best of times but when it comes to Brunetti you get to explore the sights, sounds, smells and weather of this city like never before. The backdrop with its canals, twisting streets and narrow alleyways lends itself well to a story of crime and mafia syle hits.

Where the theatre La Fenice took centre stage in the first novel, the canals and the water flow that is the lifeline to the city is the part of Venice under investigation.

The body floating in a canal…..

“The body floated face down in the murky water of the canal.”

“The head bumped a few times against the moss covered steps of the Embankment in front of the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, lodged there for a moment, then shifted free….”

The victim is an American  – a Sergeant in an he army in Vicenza. he army is a closed book at the best of times and there are closed ranks at ever turn.
But the canals will soon give up their secrets as Brunetti uses them to find the answers he seeks –

“And find out where they go to shot up, if there’s any of those calle that dead end into the canal, if there’s a place where syringes turn up in the morning”

Venice is the perfect setting since its locales such as the canals are the perfect crime scenes and Italy in itself does have the history and the architecture to provide a gothic and unforgiving feel to the whole affair.

Commissario Guido Brunetti uses his city to give him answers. He might seem slow to act yet he is always thinking and observing and respecting the city he is in.