What are you reading . . .

I have just finished reading this. A whodunnit by an author new to me although on investigation I find that she has been writing and publishing the Guido Brunetti series since 1992. We have managed to visit Venice, twice I think, and so to read this book was interesting as it mentions so many places we have visited or seen from the vaporetto. It was published in 2017, so is not all that old and mentions the MOSE system in a rather disparaging way in passing.

Once upon a tine there was a newsletter from Venice – Buongiorno Venezia – but that, alas, ceased publication some years ago, the last entry I can find was in 2013. The authoress kept us up to date with news about Venice and the lagoon. Often is was about the deleterious effect of the giant cruise ships on the delicate foundations of the ancient buildings, but it often had a few remarks about the MOSE scheme which at that time was running into difficulties, both on the engineering front, and because of (shall we say) the misapplication of funds. Searching the web these last few days there is plenty to find and I am pleased to discover that MOSE is up and running and has already saved Venice from one Acqua Alta.

A lot of the story in the above book takes place on, in and around the lagoon and for those of us lucky enough to have travelled through the lagoon to Torcello and Burano it brings back pleasant memories and helps us to understand the story better.

It was a good read, well written, with good character descriptions, and a nicely involved plot, but not so involved as to leave the reader wonder what he or she had missed when unable to understand how the sleuth got to the answer – an invariable problem in this family when watching TV detective stories in the past.

So, in tribute to the lady author, I have just ordered via abebooks.co.uk another of the Brunetti series – this time the first one she wrote.

About Ian

Retired Clergyman, and former RAF person. Lives in Kirkcudbright, SW Scotland. One wife. Two children, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren scattered across UK, Europe and the USA. Long time member of the European Movement, and latterly of the Scottish National Party. ""Here's to us; who is as good as us? Damn few, and they're all dead"
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.