Two parallel stories. Baby gangs that meet in the streets of Venice just to fight and show who is stronger, and a man who was the hero of the 2003 bombing of the Italian Carabinieri headquarters in Nasiriyah. In the baby gang is the son of this man. Some elements of the past don’t add up, so Brunetti and Commissario Claudia Griffoni decide to get to the bottom of the truth. They discover the hypocrisy of politics and how justice can be distorted. No body found in an obscure Venice calle in this novel, but a lot of thought and immersion in the lives of the protagonists. Like every year, I love reading the new Donna Leon.
“What class are you in?’ she asked. ‘Second year of the Superiore.’ ‘Anything worth studying?’ Her question surprised him, and he gave it some consideration before he said, ‘Only maths.’ That stopped Griffoni in her tracks. ‘Maths?’ When Orlando nodded, she asked, ‘Why?’ With no hesitation, he said, ‘Because it’s so clean.’ She turned away from looking across at San Giorgio, then looked at him. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Perhaps no one had ever asked him; he certainly seemed unprepared. He looked out to San Lazzaro: maybe the monks on the island could help him find an explanation. He put his hands in his pockets and raised and lowered himself on his toes a few times before saying, ‘It’s not like history, or Italian literature, or religion, or any of the other things we study. It’s just there. You ask it a question and it gives you the answer. It shows you a rule, and that won’t change, no matter how much someone prays about it or threatens you if you don’t change the answer to the one he wants.”