Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Donna Leon's latest Commissario Brunetti mystery novel may not be the most exciting installment she's ever penned, but it still made for rather interesting reading as Brunetti/Leon delves into the world of the Murano glass factory workers (their lives and their concerns) and finds himself investigating charges of toxic industrial dumping.
The last thing Brunetti expected when he agreed to help a friend of Inspector Vianello's (Marco Robetti) get out of a jam, was that he would next be investigating Ribetti's father-in-law, the choleric glass factory owner Giovanni Del Cal, for Del Cal's violent threats against Ribetti. Ribetti is an engineer and an environmentalist and also much younger than his wife -- three things that Del Cal seems to really hate Ribetti for. And while Del Cal has been issuing these threats for some time now, his daughter is beginning to worry and wonder as to whether or not the she and her husband should take these threats seriously. While investigating Del Cal, however, Brunetti hears some rather startling allegations from Del Cal's zealous night watchman about the dangerous levels of toxic dumping that's going on at Del Cal's factory. And when that nightwatchman ends up dead, Brunetti decides to go out on a limb in order to discover what's going on at the glass factories on Murano...
As with all of Donna Leon's Brunetti mystery books, "Through A Glass Darkly" was a very vivid, atmospheric and finely nuanced novel. So, if you're loking for a good, well written book to read you won't go very wrong in picking up this book. However, this is not, unfortunately, one of Leon's more stellar efforts either. The haunting, engaging and softly edgy installments that one had come to expect ("Death at La Fenice," "Death in a Strange Country," "The Death of Faith," etc) is absent here. The pacing is more sedate as Brunetti finds himself interviewing characters about Del Cal and the probable toxic dumping. And while Brunetti's sympathies are very obviously aroused by the unfortunate night watchman, there is also a slight sense of ambivalence and noninvolvement from Brunetti that I have never sensed before in previous installments. However, in spite of these small disappointments, I will own that I finished the book in one sitting and that I did enjoy it nevertheless. (One of the best bits in the novel is when Chiara, Brunetti's daughter, helps him make sense of the night watchman's notes.) All in all, not a bad read, esp if you're a fan of the series. If this is your first foray into the series, however, I'd suggest picking up earlier mysteries (all available in paperback), before picking up this particular installment.
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