About Face Book

Does the idea of a trip to Italy appeal to you? Do you want something a little less anodyne than strolling in the Mediterranean sun and consuming too much pasta and vino? Do you hanker, perhaps, to experience a touch of the corruption that most Italians wryly admit is endemic to much to their country’s superstructure? The American crime writer Donna Leon, then, is the perfect travel agent for you. She has given readers metaphorical passports to her adopted country for quite some time now, and her Commissario Brunetti novels are one of the glories of the current crime fiction scene. In her new book, About Face, a police associate of Brunetti, Guarino, leads the Commissario into a dangerous imbroglio: Mafia influence over businesses in the Marghera district is growing ever stronger, and when the MD of a trucking firm is killed in his offices, Brunetti's colleague concludes that the murder is tied into to the clandestine transportation of refuse. But things are complicated when Brunetti observes that Guarino is behaving in a very strange, atypical fashion – and the resourceful copper has multiple mysteries on his hands. In the Brunetti universe, insidious double-dealing spreads its tendrils into every aspect of Italian society, but there is always a glimmer of hope, usually represented by Donna Leon’s intelligent and tenacious copper. Commissario Guido Brunetti is the man to root out the evils of his often benighted society. About Face is not, perhaps, Leon at her considerable best – the customary voltage is more muted -- but there’s more then enough Brunetti magic here to keep admirers happy and sated. --Barry ForshawRead More