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    Death in a Strange Country
    Death in a Strange Country
    Death in a Strange Country
    Audiobook10 hours

    Death in a Strange Country

    Written by Donna Leon

    Narrated by David Colacci

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    About this audiobook

    Early one morning Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Police confronts a grisly sight when the body of a young man is fished out of a fetid canal. All the clues point to a violent mugging, but for Brunetti the motive of robbery seems altogether too convenient. When something is discovered in the victim's apartment that suggests the existence of a high-level conspiracy, Brunetti becomes convinced that somebody is taking great pains to provide a ready-made solution to the crime. Rich with atmosphere and marvelous plotting, Death in a Strange Country is a superb novel in Donna Leon's chilling Venetian mystery series.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 13, 2018
    ISBN9781501997150

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    Reviews for Death in a Strange Country

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    • 5/5
      Brilliant plot progression and very well narrated story in the Commisario Guido Brunetti series, this time highlighting US and international interests in the dumping of hazardous waste.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book. Wonderful series. I only wish Scribd had all of the books in the series.
    • 3/5
      Not a Guido Brunetti favourite, This involves a murder of an American in Venice and thus leads to an American military base where a fair bit of the book takes place and I found this less interesting since it is territory with which I am familiar. I read Donna Leon for the setting, which is mostly but not always Venice and surrounding areas. Also, I found the story oddly flat and lacking suspense. A good mystery must telegraph some possibilities about the bad guys and the possible culprits early enough to keep you wondering and Leon really just seemed to dial back the suspense in this story. It really does seem to wander at points and lose tension. The material involving Guido and the Brunettti family was interesting and fun and I did enjoy that as usual but the story overall didn't touch as much on the sights, sounds and customs of Venice which is the main reason I like these books so much. Good enough but certainly not one of Leon's best in my opinion.
    • 5/5
      In the early morning hours, Commissario Guido Brunetti gets a call. A body has washed up at the edge of a canal. It turns out to be an American from the nearby military base. What was he doing in Venice?Initially it is thought to be a mugging, but Brunetti feels there is something more, even if his superior, Vice-Questore Patta, feels it is the quickest way to handle it.Brunetti visits the victim’s apartment and finds something that doesn’t go with the image projected by co-workers and others who know the victim. It points more to some upper level dirty dealing.Brunetti finds he has to step carefully and avoid stepping on toes of those higher up the food chain. Some of these people can and do make irritating, nosey people disappear.Little by little, Brunetti gets all the pieces and makes sense of the puzzle. It is not just local Venetians, but also high powered internationals that are involved.Leon’s description of Venice, the rhythm of life there and the people creates a great backdrop for her characters and plot. Brunetti’s concern about solving the crime and focus pull you along in his path to a solution.
    • 5/5
      Another journey through Venice and into the character and family of Brunetti. Cleverly plotted and the ending is a surprise. It also tangentially introduces the reader to the Venetian painter Guadr. The enjoyment can be enhanced by using amapping app to locate some of the places mentioned.
    • 3/5
      A story of corruption, murder and stalled police investigations. I read Book 1 a very long time ago, and liked the premise of a very human detective with an interesting family. But book 2 didn't resonate with me very much.Only in passing comments about the canal system would the reader know it was set in Venice. The architectural remarks seemed like add-ons and somewhat irrelevant, as well as the overly descriptive writing. Ultimately the narrative was not very intriguing although I did enjoy the interactions between Paola and Guido. I'm tired of the incompetent police superior, as a foil for the intelligent detective, though. The sense of unfinished business at the end of the story was deflating. It may be very realistic, but not very satisfying.
    • 3/5
      Death In A Strange Country (1993) (Comm. Brunetti #2) by Donna Leon.A body is fished out of one of Venice’s canals and very quickly it is determined that he was American and probably came from the U.S. Arby base in Vicenza. Discounting the body as a victim of mugging gone bad, and convinced of the U.S. Army’s extended knowledge of the young man’s past and current responsibilities. plus an interview with the female Captain/doctor who came to identify the body, Comm. Brunette heads out to the military base.Stonewalled by the military, but finding evidence of a coverup at the victims residence, Brunetti is soon on the track of something far more sinister than just a murder. There are deep ties between the military and a local industrialist whose palazzo was robbed of a trio of valuable paintings. That case is also tossed to the Commissario just to complicate his life.Once again Brunette turns to his father-in-law for information, but there is little he can do. Veiled threats are tossed about and the situation turns very dangerous.A nice read but if the series doesn’t ramp up the thrills, I just may skip out on the rest.
    • 4/5
      The Commissario is very frustrated by the impediments that superiors, and people in high places, even his father-in-law use to negate his investigation into two recent crimes in his city. Doggedly struggling on, he solves the crimes but is not able to prosecute them. Unexpected action from a bereaved mother is needed for an ironic but apt solution.
    • 4/5
      I'd forgotten how good, and also how disheartening, this police procedural is
    • 3/5
      Death in a strange country is the second Brunetti novel - a body found floating in the canal is identified as that of an American serviceman from the giant base at Vicenza, leading to an investigation that brings to light not only the inevitable political corruption but also some of the more uncomfortable aspects of the long-standing US military presence in Italy. Like all long-term expats, Leon has fun criticising both the country she comes from and the one she's living in. It's good to see that her Venice is not simply the tourist-gem we like to think it is, and it's also nice that it's never a foregone conclusion that Brunetti will triumph over the systematic evils he finds in his investigations. On the other hand, the things Leon chooses to represent "the real Italy" sometimes almost seem to be drawn from the other side of the same box of Italian clichés as tourist-Venice - tax-evasion, the maffia, chiuso per restauri, pollution, corrupt businessmen and politicians, etc. Maybe it's all a bit too easy...?
    • 3/5
      Brunetti identifies a man found floating in a canal as an American military health inspector. Patta pressures Brunetti to accept a concocted explanation which will appease high profile persons in Venice. Vicardi, one such influential person, reports stolen paintings. A recently released criminal becomes the immediate suspect in the painting thefts. Brunetti continues to investigate the murder as he can but one person he plans to interview dies before he gets to do so. This installment's plot stretches the boundaries of belief, even for a country with as much corruption as the Italy portrayed by Leon. The ending does not completely satisfy.
    • 4/5
      In the second series installment, Commissario Brunetti investigates the death of a man found floating in one of Venice's canals. The dead man's personal effects suggest that he was an American, and Brunetti's investigation leads him to a nearby military base. Brunetti must find ways to work around his superior, who is being pressured to resolve the matter according to outside interests. While the strong sense of place and the characters are appealing, the web of conspiracy overreaches a bit too much.
    • 3/5
      It was “okay,” which I suppose is what 3 stars represent. Leon did not spend much time describing Brunetti’s family, though she did develop the character of his father- and mother-in law a bit more (she: a ditzy but sweet; he: seriously creepy). The storyline was a bit “dark” for me, which is partially why I put it aside for so long.
    • 4/5
      Stumbled on this series and read this first. Enjoyed the interest of the Venice location. Not a thriller but interesting enough to continue.
    • 3/5
      It was okay, I guess. Definitely did not enjoy it as much as the first one.
    • 3/5
      3.5***

      In this second Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery, Leon crafts a plot that includes a conspiracy involving the American military, Italian business interests and the Mafia.

      A dead man is found floating in the canal. He is without identification but has three U.S. coins in his pocket. He also has an expertly placed stab wound in his side; someone knew what he was doing when he stabbed the victim between the ribs and directly into the heart. As it turns out he is not a tourist but a Public Health Inspector from the American Army post in nearby Vicenza. The reaction of his superior officer on identifying the body raises Brunetti’s suspicions. Doctor Peters seemed frightened when she saw the nature of the deadly wound, and Brunetti is certain she is withholding information. When his own superior officer seems content to call it a mugging, and the Americans quickly lose interest in any further investigation, Brunetti is even more convinced that something big is behind this.

      Leon is a good writer and she has created a wonderful character in Brunetti. In his profession he’s learned to keep secrets and control his emotions, yet he is a loving family man. I love the way he interacts with his wife, Paola; although his interaction with his children is severely limited. Conspiracy-based storylines are not my favorite, however, so that detracted from my enjoyment of this book. On the other hand, I really enjoy the little details of Italian life that Leon includes – especially the food!
    • 4/5
      The second book in the Commissario Brunetti mysteries. I enjoy the characters and the writing in this series.
    • 5/5
      I was delighted to find a Brunetti novel that I hadn't read. Very early in this long standing series, the author is just establishing the characters of Guido Brunetti and his wife Paola. Their children are in their early teens. Vice-Questore Patta tries in vain to mould Brunetti, and Signora Elektra, Patta's computer literate assistant is yet to come on the scene. For those who have visited Venice there are evocative descriptions.Already too there are signs of Donna Leon's intense interest in corruption in high places, and the roles that both Italy and America are playing in global waste and pollution.Not to be missed. If you haven't yet read any Donna Leon, this is a series you shouldn't miss - one certainly worth reading in order.
    • 5/5
      I continue to be an enormous fan of the Commisario Brunetti series. For those of you who may have missed my earlier reviews, Donna Leon teaches English for the University of Maryland Extension near Venice and has lived in Italy for many years. She portrays the flavor of Italian life vividly, and it's clear that while she must love living there, petty and not-so-petty corruption is rampant. She makes delightfully wicked little comments. For example, the Carabineri major, interviewed by Brunetti on an American army post - not base, that's for the Air Force - waxes on about the characteristics of Americans. They tend to be arrogant, of course, but Americans are really too insecure to be truly arrogant, "unlike the Germans." Classic.

      Brunetti is walking home through "battalions of ravaging tourists who centered their attacks on the area around San Marcos. Each year it grew harder to have patience with them, to put up with their stop-and-go walking, with their insistence on walking three abreast through even the narrowest calles. There were times when he wanted to scream at them, even push them aside, but he contented himself by taking out all of his aggressions through the single expedient of refusing to stop, or in any way alter his course, in order to allow them a photo opportunity. Because of this, he was sure that his body, back and elbow appeared in hundreds of photos and videos. He sometimes contemplated the disappointed Germans looking at their summer videos during the violence of the North Sea storm as they watched a purposeful, dark-suited Italian walk in front of Tante Gerda or an Onkel Franz, blurring, if only for a moment the lederhosen-clad tourists" with what was probably the only real Italian they would see during their stay.

      An American soldier, Sgt. Michael Foster, an American public health inspector at the American military hospital in Vicenza, has been found floating in one of the Venetian canals. In an act of true heroism, two policemen jump in the water - the water being so dirty, hence the heroism - and drag him out. Brunetti's superior would like nothing better than to have the case buried, because the idea of an American being killed in Venice would ruin the tourist trade. Brunetti purposefully manipulates his boss into thinking the murder might have been committed elsewhere - must think of tourism, of course - so he can be authorized to travel to the man's post and investigate. An army captain, Dr. Peters, a woman doctor, who had come to Venice to identify the body in the morgue, had vomited from what Brunetti thought was from fear, when she saw how the man had been killed, by a knife plunging directly through the ribs into the heart. He suspects something is rather odd about this case, especially when he finds some cocaine that was not well hidden in the dead soldier's apartment, apparently after it had been thoroughly searched by the military authorities. The case becomes more complicated as both he and the Carabinieri major are politely warned off the case after they discover a connection between the dead soldier, a sick boy, contracts for the disposal of toxic waste, Brunetti's father-in-law, and the ostensible suicide by heroin overdose of Dr. Peters, not to mention the theft of some famous paintings from a prominent businessman.

      As with many of her other books, you are left at the end deeply saddened by the corruption, the illicit use of power and its effect on Brunetti, who, despite all, struggles on trying to stay an honest cop. He is a wonderful character.
    • 5/5
      Perhaps Donna Leon's best, in a standout series. Much of this is amusing, and sometimes touching, in the midst of a cross-cultural plot pitting Brunetti against his sellout political superior, as usual, but additionally, the Americans who dress in shorts even on a military base--a base which features a swimming pool and a Baskin-Robbins. "Did the Americans know where their money went?" In a rare departure from whodunit convention, Brunetti even knows one of the victims. As for amusement, take the Commissario's response to his boss Patta's pretentious, gold-cigarette holder reprimand, " 'Brunetti, I've had a very upsetting phone call.' 'Not your wife, sir, I hope,' Brunetti said in what he hoped was a meek voice."But consider Leon's irony, so frequent in this novel, and so unique in the genre. Her vehicle is the Commissario's reflections on politicians and criminals alike. On a tall exemplar of the latter, "Giuseppe had never worked, the only trade he had ever practiced was in stolen objects...If he was back at work so soon after being released, two years in prison had apparently not been wasted on him" (134). This novel also provides insight into Brunetti's marriage to Paola, from the Venetian aristocracy.A professor of literature, especially American, she does not awaken easily on Sunday morning. As Brunetti on honeymoon had nuzzled her ear in the morning, he heard, "If you don't stop that, I'll rip out your heart and eat it." The honeymoon was over. Overall, this is a fine work of fiction, even on a topic which has grown in relevance since the novel was published--environmental crime. This novel would bear teaching in a college course (such as those I taught for four decades) if it weren't so accessible, like EF Benson, who is never taught, yet one of the best English comic novelists of the 20C.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this one more than the first in the series, although that was a good debut... I am looking forward to seeing how Brunetti and his family's characters develop. Well plotted and paced... Patta is a well written dingbat.
    • 4/5
      What does the murder of a young American Sergeant stationed in Vicenza and the theft of priceless Impressionist paintings from the palazzo of a Milanese arms dealer have in common? Commissario Brunetti isn't quite sure, but his instincts tell him to keep pursuing these cases even as doing so goes against his superior's orders. In the process he uncovers a conspiracy that involves the powers that be which threatens the well-being of all residents of Italy and beyond. I quite enjoyed the second of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti series, my only regret being that I haven't been reading this series in it's proper sequence, although that is by no means a requirement. I was complaining about the slow pace of the last Donna Leon I read, and in hindsight I think I was missing the point; Brunetti enjoys all the small pleasures of life; food, wine, time spent with his family and the small details which can only be appreciated by one living in Venice. Leon's pacing, contrary to typical thrillers, is deliberately unhurried when it needs to be, which allows us to go on journeys of discovery right along with her main protagonist.
    • 3/5
      another quick and good mystery from donna leon. ok the bad guys are not ending up in prison but get his sentence. not every crime is punished so i liek this story without any jail time for any one.
    • 3/5
      Donna Leon writes well. Her descriptions of Venice, where all of her Commissario Brunetti mysteries are set, are lovingly crafted. Her characters, particularly Brunetti’s family, are believable. In this, the second of the 19 Brunetti books published to date, the Venetian policeman grapples with the death of an American serviceman and an art theft in rather straightforward police procedural style, except that at every step Brunetti must be cognizant of the influences of corrupt politicians, the Mafia, and “people of influence.” Brunetti’s immediate superior channels all of these influences, so that a pantomime takes place for his boss’ eyes while real investigation goes in another direction.Personally, I’m not happy with such a heavy overlay of influence and corruption in my mysteries. The conclusion, as you would expect, does not bring justice to the evildoers in classic fashion, which, to me, is unsatisfying. I’ll read the next of Leon’s books, though, hoping these influences aren’t as pronounced. Her writing is worth the effort.
    • 5/5
      In this episode of the Commissario Brunetti series, Guido Brunetti is called to investigate the body of an American soldier found floating in the canals of Venice. The soldier is stationed at Vicenza, over an hours train ride away. Brunetti feels he is not getting honest answers from the Americans he interviews, and feels he is being rushed to come up with a 'death by mugging' verdict that doesn't seem to fit.At the same time, he is also called to deal with the 'theft' of three priceless paintings from a wealthy business man's palazzo. Eyewitness accounts of the crime don't seem to match the victim's account. And the plot gets messier and murkier. NO SPOILERS. It's a great mystery, with compassionate, intelligent, educated and urbane characters. Leon gives us an inside look at corruption at all levels of the justice system, as well as poignant vignettes of regional dialects and characters. Well worth the read.My only minus to this one was the narrator. I have listened to several others in this series all done by David Colacci, but this one was done by Anna Fields and while I've been pleased with other books she's read, her voice just didn't do it for me on this one. Brunetti is a macho hunky male, and part of the joy of listening to these has been Colacci's wonderful ability to use Italian dialect and accents for all of Leon's diverse characters. The female voice detracted from the story for me.
    • 4/5
      We return to Venice in this second of the series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti as he is confronted with the death of a young American and a possible suicide of the doctor who identified the body. Since Brunetti's superior, Patta, wants the murder of the American resolved quickly, Guido goes to the American Army base in Vicenza to gather information on the victim and to try to determine why he was killed. When later he is handed on the case involving a mugging of a VIP and theft of expensive art, little does Guido know that the cases are connected and will result in an unusual ending.I really enjoy these mysteries because Donna Leon serves up the clues in a slow and subtle way so that that the reader is going at exactly the same pace as the character. She delicately weaves the story introduces each element that is needed to resolve the mystery at the same time giving it the necessary importance and details to push the reader forward. Her interconnection of the characters and the story is quite masterful.I have to admit that this story was so well-written that at times I truly believed that it could be happening and that really seemed so real that I wonder if Ms. Leon knows something that we all don't. Should we all be so trusting of a foreign government that doesn't behave the way we want? Should any country have carte blanche to behave in a manner that is not to the betterment of all mankind? This book definitely posed so very interesting questions about our or any society and made me stop and wonder. At the same time as I am wondering, I was wishing that I could visit all the places that she described with such vivid preciseness - the beauty of the city with the contrasts of its problems, oh well, maybe someday.
    • 5/5
      Death in a Strange Country is the second book in Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti series. Brunetti, a Commissario in the Venice police department, is called to the scene of an apparent murder - a body is found floating in a canal. Brunetti discovers that the dead man is an American, an officer in the public health department at the military base in Vicenza. A young doctor is called to identify the body, and Brunetti finds that she is terrified, but of what he doesn't know. As he continues to investigate the crime, he finds that the potential cause may be rooted deep in corruption. In the end, Brunetti discovers more about why the crime is committed that who - ultimately - is responsible.This was an excellent mystery. Leon's draws the reader into the lives of the characters, who are well fleshed out and seem to jump to life from the page. Once again, Venice is just as much a character in the book as the others - Leon describes the city in such a way so that the reader feels she is there. I felt the plotting was handled quite well, and the uneasy ending fit the story perfectly. Death in a Strange Country is definitely one of the most well-written mysteries I've read, and I look forward to the next book in the series.
    • 4/5
      An America soldier is found floating in a Venetian canal, murdered. Commissario Brunetti is called in and soon finds himself involved in a case extending from Venice to the American military base at Vincenza—complicated by government cover-ups, shadowy Mafia presence and insurance scams.This is the second in the series and I enjoyed it even more than the first. The plot is reasonable...more a "why did the murder occur?" than a "who did the murder?" story. It moves along swiftly and logically. Ms. Leon continues to flesh out her characters, mostly by providing us further glimpses into Brunetti's family, from the son starting to emerge from the Land of Teenage Angst to the father-in-law who moves in the powerful world of the movers and shakers that start to take notice of Brunetti's efforts.The best part of the story is that it doesn't have a pat solution. Once the reader understands all that is going on, any complete solution would have been simply too neat, though many mystery authors would have tried. Instead, though the reader is left with a very satisfying resolution to some of the immediate problems, Donna Leon makes no secret of her stance on some of the larger issues involving big business and government, and the reader is left sharing some of Brunetti's cynical perception that he has done nothing to solve the real problems...only moved them somewhere else.I recommend this series for mystery fans.
    • 4/5
      Death in a Strange Country is a mystery regarding exactly such; but rather than your usual ‘whodunit’ it is more a matter of ‘why was it done’; and very well-done at that! This second instalment in Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti series offers as much enjoyment and entertainment as the first, though the social commentary within this volume delivers a stark and considerably bleak opinion on American influences, Italian corruption and the state of the nation; the beauty and personality of Venice weaving a delicate counterbalance to the overall severity of the tale.When a body is pulled from the rank waters of a Venetian canal, Commissario Guido Brunetti, unhappily consigned to the case, finds himself pulled into a complicated web of deceit and duplicity crossing international lines. The body is identified as an American soldier stationed at the army base in Vicenza, and the large stab wound expertly placed suggests foul play. Expecting little co-operation from the American side and being granted just that Brunetti, whilst unable to find any conceivable motive, is firstly disconcerted to find false evidence laid in his path in an effort to close the case; and secondly, when the man’s commanding officer, a doctor, given to identify the body, is also found dead from an apparent suicide. Ostensibly removed from the case by his direct superior, Vice-Questore Patta, and ordered to investigate, instead, the assault of a powerful local businessman and the robbery of three valuable paintings, Brunetti uses all his expertise to surreptitiously probe the myriad of political undercurrents surrounding both cases; helped enormously by his influential father-in-law, for once, and an astute member of the Carabinieri, Maggiore Ambrogiani. It is patently clear that Donna Leon, with this story, is imparting a spare but solid indictment on the status of the affairs in a country in which she lives, and obviously loves; and in the world at large. In spite of the harsh revelations, the almost brutal machinations underscoring the plot, the author entices and enlivens the reader with the wonders of the city of Venice; with the beauty of its environs and the joy in the life of Guido Brunetti and his family. I am enriched by his daughter’s ideology, literature and all; enjoined by his wife’s desire for sleep on a Sunday morning and enthralled by his son’s burgeoning advances into fashion, into love; though, in the latter, I am probably more delighted than Brunetti himself! And the colourful inhabitants of Venice add a remarkable nuance to the tale. There are no easy solutions afforded here, no neat and tidy resolutions provided for a satisfying dénouement. There are, however, some elegant but realistic inferences supplied to conclude this entire account; all which present an altogether smart and particularly savvy author - she really knows her stuff – and one who will not impart a certain ending to a tale for the sake of an acceptable finale. After all, the truth is often messy, is often poorly categorised, and justice can prevail in many ways! How refreshing to find a protagonist, and an author, with the savoir-faire to work especially well with that. More please!(Mar 23, 2009)
    • 4/5
      Death in a Strange CountryDonna Leon2nd in th Commisario Brunetti series set in Venice, Italy.Awakened early in the morning by a phone call reporting a body found in a canal, Brunetti discovers that the victim is a young American soldier stationed at the US Army post in Vicenza, just north of Venice. The young man has been murdered, and at first glance, it appears to be a mugging gone wrong. But Brunetti is not convinced of the easy explanation, and sets out to uncover the real story. Establishing the identity of the soldier is easy, trying to understand much less so. In his investigation, Brunetti comes in contact with the lover of the young man, an American doctor--a pediatrician--on the psot. She is clearly firghtened but refuses to cooperat more than superficially with Brunetti.Upsetting Patta with is investigation (and Patta is easily upset with most things), Brunetti is told to stop hounding the poor Americans and get on to a case of a robbery of the palazzo of a rich Milanese businessman. But rather than ease Patta’s social anxieties, it does appear that the businessman engineered the robbery to solve an irritating cash flow.Brunetti’s investigations of both of these cases lead him into a complex web of complicity on the part of the US Army the Italian government, and the Mafia in a case that exposes him to great personal danger.The resolution of the plot, in order to be realistic, is not satisfying; Leon has resisted the temptation to wrap things up tidily. This, in my opinion, contributes powerfully to the story and to the believability of Leon’s characters and city.All of Donna Leon’s strengths are present in this fine installment: strong characterizations; good plotting; engaging descriptions of Venice; wry humor. Following Brunetti about Venice by means of GoogleEarth maps was again highly rewarding, contributing mightily to my enjoyment of the story.Another excellent installment in a superb series. Highly recommended.