Willful Behavior

Donna Leon has just published her 24th book in the mystery series following the police work of Commissario Guido Brunetti.  I just discovered this author and character and read completely out of order book number 11, Willful Behavior.  

This is a wonderfully written mystery story.  The characters are well developed and you can get a great idea of who they are even jumping in the middle of the series.  Leon writes such descriptive dialog and character representation that you feel like you know them even though you are meeting them for the first time.  Leon does say that the time is irrelevant in her books.  She does not really age her characters in real time.  Brunetti loves to come home and eat lunch with his family.  His wife Paola, a college professor, works in her home office and cooks gourmet meals for her family.  Their son and daughter are typical children who in this book are just there in the background to help create the loving family life that is the back drop for Brunetti at the end of the day.

This was an intriguing mystery about a young college student who is killed and as the plot unfolds, it is suspected that she has connections to lost or stolen Holocaust artwork.  We learn about the war years in Venice and how the government turned a blind eye to what was happening in Italy during the war. In this book Leon writes about the different attitudes Italians had during the war and afterwards. There is reference to resistance fighters, secrets of collaboration and the exploitation of the Italian Jews.

Leon writes with attention to detail, both in the meals Paola cooks for Brunetti and in the historical events she references throughout the novel.  She expertly offers twists and turns that leave you surprised at the end of the book, about what really happened to victims in this case.