Suffer the Little Children
Click to read:
Authors:
Donna Leon
Retail Price (Softback):
Retail Price (Ebook):
ISBN: 9780434016259
First Published: 2007
Description:
When Commissario Brunetti is summoned to the hospital bedside of a senior paediatrician whose skull has been fractured during a brutal attack, he is confronted with more questions than answers. Three men have burst into the doctor's apartment in the middle of the night, attacked him and taken away his eighteen month old son. What can have motivated such a violent assault?
As he investigates, Brunnetti begins to uncover a story of infertility, desperation and an underworld in which babies can be bought for cash. Meanwhile Inspector Vianello has uncovered a money-making scam between pharmacists and doctors in the city. One of the pharmacists is motivated by more than thoughts of gain - the power of knowledge and delusions of moral rectitude can be as powerful and destructive as the love of money. And certain uses of information about one's neighbours an lead to all kinds of corruption and all sorts of pain...
Donna Leon's new novel is a subtle and gripping as ever, set in a beautifully realised Venice, seething with small-town malice.
William Heinemann
Your Opinions and Comments
This story is Leon's well tried mix of detective story involving: Commissario Brunetti and the staff of the Venice Questura; a violent arrest of illegally adopted parents; the delightful Senorina Elletra, with her ability to find out helpful information via the internet and, of course, Brunetti's family, with their helpful connections into the Venetian aristocracy.
The story as usual has Brunetti in conversation with anyone who can help, often in the local restaurant, over a glass of wine.
Unusually I read this book in fits and starts, due to a very busy time at work and with family, and I became much more aware of Donna Leons' style of writing and how she is able to entertainingly add delightful description to the book.
For example Brunetti is asking one of the policemen where Inspector Vianello (a colleague) can be found.
'You seen Vianello, Alvise?' Brunetti asked
Brunetti observed the officer process the question: with Alvise, the process of thinking always had a visible component. First he considered the question, then he considered the person who had asked it and the consequences of the answer he might give. His eyes shot around the room, perhaps to check if it were still as empty as when Brunetti had come in, perhaps if he had somehow overlooked Vianello under one of the desks. Seeing that no one was there to help him answer, Alvise finally said, No, sir.'
A good detective story, delightfully observed. Well worth a read, in one go or in snatched fragments.