A review by usbsticky
Friends in High Places by Donna Leon
4.0
Outline: This is a police procedural series set in Venice, Italy. The protagonist is Commissario Brunetti a native Venetian. This is a character based series and after 9 books I love the characters and the setting.
Spoilers below:
In each book Donna Leon touches on some of the ills of the modern Italian state, the city of Venice and the Italian character. In this book the ills are 3:
1) The corruption of Ufficio Catasto which seems to be translated as the Italian Land Registry but seems to have to do with land and building permits. It seems that many people are able to get away with unofficial construction by paying a bribe(s) to the right people. In my country, our officials can be officious and unhelpful but they don't take bribes unless they are very high up (like the mayor or city councilmen; go big or go home) and the bribes are disguised as something else.
1a) Mentioned as a side note that income is often/always under reported and therefore everyone is under taxed.
2) Money lenders. It seems these are private individuals who charge usurious interest rates to people who can't borrow money otherwise. They use things like their houses as security and from the book it seems that the money lenders can get very rich by possessing these houses. In my country, there are usurious money lenders but these are well known companies that even advertise on TV. In the book, the money lenders are protected by highly placed officials who are bribed/sold possessed properties at very low prices acquired by the money lenders.
3) Drug (heroin/cocaine) addiction by the younger crowd. It seems that drugs aren't very prevalent in the city but they are easily acquired on the mainland.
The book starts off when an honest low level Ufficio Catasto official is killed. The investigation leads to a drug addict witness who was hiding nearby. He is also killed and that leads to the descendant of one of the Doges of Venice who killed the official in order to protect higher ups of that office.
Meanwhile a young university student and drug addict is killed and Brunetti posts a fake ad in the paper to try and draw his dealer out. Instead Brunetti's boss's son, who is also a drug addict, is threatened. Investigation of the Ufficio Catasto office leads to the money lenders.
There are a lot of threads in this book and they are all mixed up. The only thread that is solved is the murder of the Ufficio Catasto. The rest seem unfinished. Despite the confusion of the threads I find Donna Leon to be otherwise a very good writer. She brings up some very good observations of human nature throughout the series and some of her writing is beautiful and artistic. However some of her other stories also end up like this one, unfinished.
Spoilers below:
In each book Donna Leon touches on some of the ills of the modern Italian state, the city of Venice and the Italian character. In this book the ills are 3:
1) The corruption of Ufficio Catasto which seems to be translated as the Italian Land Registry but seems to have to do with land and building permits. It seems that many people are able to get away with unofficial construction by paying a bribe(s) to the right people. In my country, our officials can be officious and unhelpful but they don't take bribes unless they are very high up (like the mayor or city councilmen; go big or go home) and the bribes are disguised as something else.
1a) Mentioned as a side note that income is often/always under reported and therefore everyone is under taxed.
2) Money lenders. It seems these are private individuals who charge usurious interest rates to people who can't borrow money otherwise. They use things like their houses as security and from the book it seems that the money lenders can get very rich by possessing these houses. In my country, there are usurious money lenders but these are well known companies that even advertise on TV. In the book, the money lenders are protected by highly placed officials who are bribed/sold possessed properties at very low prices acquired by the money lenders.
3) Drug (heroin/cocaine) addiction by the younger crowd. It seems that drugs aren't very prevalent in the city but they are easily acquired on the mainland.
The book starts off when an honest low level Ufficio Catasto official is killed. The investigation leads to a drug addict witness who was hiding nearby. He is also killed and that leads to the descendant of one of the Doges of Venice who killed the official in order to protect higher ups of that office.
Meanwhile a young university student and drug addict is killed and Brunetti posts a fake ad in the paper to try and draw his dealer out. Instead Brunetti's boss's son, who is also a drug addict, is threatened. Investigation of the Ufficio Catasto office leads to the money lenders.
There are a lot of threads in this book and they are all mixed up. The only thread that is solved is the murder of the Ufficio Catasto. The rest seem unfinished. Despite the confusion of the threads I find Donna Leon to be otherwise a very good writer. She brings up some very good observations of human nature throughout the series and some of her writing is beautiful and artistic. However some of her other stories also end up like this one, unfinished.