Sokea rakkaus (2002)

A bright beautiful young women is murdered and the motive at first seems to be the found in art work owned by the woman she calls grandmother. The art was plundered by the woman's lover during the war. There are many twists in Brunetti's investigation.
There are some formulaic elements in the story: Paola's involvement; Eletra's involvement; computer sleuthing - but in the end the characters come alive making the read a pleasure. ( )

One of Paola's university students asks her a legal question seeking the advice of Paola's husband Commissario Guido Brunetti, a former law student. The question involves a man who died while serving a sentence in a mental institution for a conviction during the World War II years. While Brunetti doubts a modern trial would produce a different result, when the girl turns up dead, he knows her questions probably resulted in her murder. They mystery involves art in a private collection and a somewhat hidden library where the girl volunteered. I enjoyed this mystery, but I did not enjoy the narrator as much as I enjoyed the usual narrator for the series. Crossley mispronounced names and other proper nouns, and I really didn't like his voice for Guido which made him seem less authoritative. ( )

When one of the brightest of Paola’s students asks her a legal question she can’t answer, Paola agrees to ask her husband, Commissario Brunetti. The girl’s question has to do with the reputation of her grandfather, who was convicted for criminal behavior during World War II but died before serving his sentence. Brunetti isn’t able to give her an answer she wants to hear. Brunetti thinks no more about it, until the girl is found dead in her apartment from what was quite clearly murder.

I enjoyed this one a bit more than some of the other installments in the series because of Paola’s contribution. She knew the murder victim and her insights were helpful to her husband as he tried to make sense of the case. I’m also fond of mysteries that involve art or libraries, and this one had both. I wasn’t as fond of the new narrator for the audio version. He mispronounced Chiara’s name throughout the book. It looks like this might have been a one-off for this narrator. Maybe the regular narrator couldn’t fit this one into his schedule. ( )

Resum: www.donnaleon.es
Una estudiante acude al comisario Brunetti para pedirle consejo: ¿hay alguna forma legal de limpiar el buen nombre de su familia, mancillado por un crimen que cometió muchos años atrás su ya fallecido abuelo? Impresionado por su belleza e inteligencia, pero incapaz de ayudarla, Brunetti casi olvida el asunto hasta que la joven aparece asesinada en su apartamento. La investigación de este crimen transporta al infatigable comisario a la Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuando los judíos italianos fueron sistemáticamente despojados de sus obras de arte por parte de los nazis y sus colaboradores. A medida que Brunetti va desenterrando secretos de colaboracionismo, crimen organizado y explotación, se da cuenta de que se está adentrando en una época que los italianos, empezando por su propio padre y su suegro, el conde Orazio, tienen especial interés en ocultar. Los fantasmas del pasado son enemigos más peligrosos de lo que cabe imaginar.

One of Leon's better ones, I think, in which a young student of Paola's is killed after inquiring about clearing her grandfather's record from after WWII. People are indeed wilful in this story: an old lady who can't help loving a truly despicable follower of Mussolini, that same despicable fellow's penchant for collecting art to the loss of those attempting to escape Italy during the war, a notario whose whole family is obsessed with greed - and so forth. The only thought I had aside from enjoyment of this very satisfying mystery is that Brunetti wouldn't have been able to solve any of this without the extraordinary clandestine skills and connections of Signorina Ekatterin ( )