About the Book
In the thirty-third installment of Donna Leon's magnificent series, Commissario Guido Brunetti confronts a present-day Venetian menace and the ghosts of a heroism that never was
Around one AM on an early spring morning, two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice's squares. Commissario Claudia Griffoni, on duty that night, perhaps ill-advisedly walks the last of the boys home because his father, Dario Monforte, failed to pick him up at the Questura. Coincidentally, Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy friend of Vice-Questore Patta to vet Monforte for a job, triggering Brunetti's memory that twenty years earlier Monforte had been publicly celebrated as the hero of a devastating bombing of the Italian military compound in Iraq. Yet Monforte had never been awarded a medal either by the Carabinieri, his service branch, or by the Italian government.
That seeming contradiction, and the brutal attack on one of Brunetti's colleagues, Enzo Bocchese, by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti's attentions. Surprisingly empowered by Patta, supported by Signorina Elettra's extraordinary research abilities and by his wife, Paola's, empathy, Brunetti, with Griffoni, gradually discovers the sordid hypocrisy surrounding Monforte's past, culminating in a fiery meeting of two gangs and a final opportunity for redemption.
A Refiner's Fire is Donna Leon at her very best: an elegant, sophisticated storyteller whose indelible characters become richer with each book, and who constantly explores the ambiguity between moral and legal justice.
About the Author :
Donna Leon, born in New Jersey in 1942, has worked as a travel guide in Rome and as a copywriter in London. She taught literature in universities in Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia. Commissario Brunetti made her books world-famous. Donna Leon lived in Italy for many years, and although she now lives in Switzerland, she often visits Venice.
Review :
Praise for A Refiner's Fire:
Named a Most Anticipated Summer Read by the Boston Globe
"Only in a Donna Leon novel could you find Tacitus ('They make a desert and call it peace') and Nancy Sinatra cited on the same page. You never know what she's going to say next. If her increasingly sardonic wit provides more surprises than the perfectly crafted plot, this only proves what a truly great writer she has become."--Mark Sanderson, The Times (UK)
"Deeply layered."--Washington Post
"How I wish this series would go on forever . . . A Refiner's Fire does such a fine job continuing this pulse-pounding saga. The fact that it presents danger to our fearless protagonist and his own people just ups the ante in what turns out to be one of the most personal cases yet in this stellar series."--Book Reporter
"Settle back comfortably. Have a large goblet of an Italian red wine within arm's reach. Join these decent, erudite Venetian detectives yet again. Give yourself over completely to their world."--Winnipeg Free Press
"[A Refiner's Fire] shows that at 82 [Donna Leon] still has a literary fastball. And that she knows how to keep series characters fresh and alive . . . Complex, suspenseful, well-paced, and believable."--American Spectator
"An impressive level of literary elegance."--Midwest Book Review
"Very thoughtful of those small trespasses that eventually lead to our society's most egregious wrongdoings."--Reviewing the Evidence
"The characters and their relationships dominate this story, and they hint at secret behaviors that challenge the reader's sense of right and wrong."--Mendocino Beacon
"Showcas[es] the emotional depth and intellectual acumen of Commissario Guido Brunetti . . . With the understated elegance and empathy imbued throughout this internationally acclaimed series, Leon once again examines the confluence of solid police work with issues of redemption and social justice."--Booklist
"As usual in Leon's books, the mystery plays second fiddle to the characters and relationships from whom hints of secret misbehavior gradually coalesce into revelations as sordid and violent as you could wish. Is all this really 'the stuff of television drama, ' as Brunetti fears? Only of a very high order indeed."--Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries:
"This endlessly enjoyable series, with its deep thoughts about justice and vengeance and charming classical allusions, can't help making you smile."--Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
"[Leon] has never become perfunctory, never failed to give us vivid portraits of people and of Venice, never lost her fine, disillusioned indignation."--Ursula K. Le Guin, New York Times
"You become so wrapped up in these compelling characters . . . Each one is better than the last."--Louise Erdrich, PBS NewsHour
"Few detective writers create so vivid, inclusive, and convincing a narrative as Donna Leon . . . One of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever."--Washington Post
"The sophisticated but still moral Brunetti, with his love of food and his loving family, proves a worthy custodian of timeless values and verities."--Wall Street Journal
"[Leon] uses the relatively small and crime-free canvas of Venice for rips about Italian life, sexual styles and--best of all--the kind of ingrown business and political corruption that seems to lurk just below the surface."--Chicago Tribune
"Hers is an unusually potent cocktail of atmosphere and event."--New Yorker
"For those who know Venice, or want to, Brunetti is a well-versed escort to the nooks, crannies, moods, and idiosyncrasies of what residents call La Serenissima, the Serene One . . . Richly atmospheric, [Leon] introduces you to the Venice insiders know."--USA Today
"Donna Leon is the undisputed crime fiction queen . . . Leon's ability to capture the social scene and internal politics [of Venice] is first-rate."--Baltimore Sun
"Terrific at providing, through its weary but engaging protagonist, a strong sense of the moral quandaries inherent in Italian society and culture."--San Francisco Chronicle
"Brunetti is one of the most attractive policemen in crime fiction today."--Philadelphia Inquirer
"As always, Brunetti is highly attuned to (and sympathetic toward) the failings of the humans around him."--Seattle Times
"Leon's writing trembles with true feeling."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Leon started out with offhand, elegant excellence, and has simply kept it up."--Guardian
"Compassionate yet incorruptible, Brunetti knows that true justice doesn't always end in an arrest or a trial."--Publishers Weekly
"[Brunetti] is a superb police detective--calm, deliberate, and insightful as he investigates with a reflective thoroughness."--Library Journal
"The appeal of Guido Brunetti, the hero of Donna Leon's long-running Venetian crime series, comes not from his shrewdness, though he is plenty shrewd, nor from his quick wit. It comes, instead, from his role as an Everyman . . . [his life is] not so different from our own days at the office or nights around the dinner table. Crime fiction for those willing to grapple with, rather than escape, the uncertainties of daily life."--Booklist
"It's difficult to describe the work of Donna Leon other than in superlatives . . . An annual blessing, a fine series--one of the finest (see what I mean) in the mystery (or any) genre . . . There are few reading joys that equal cracking the binding of a new Leon novel . . . If you have not experienced this world, so exotic and yet so familiar, you can pick up literally any volume in the series and begin a comfortable entry into Brunetti's Venice."--BookReporter
"One of the most popular crime series worldwide . . . While the Brunetti books, with their abundance of local color and gastronomic treats, appeal to the fans of the traditional mystery, Leon has something darker and deeper in mind."--Life Sentence
"No author has delved into Venetian society quite like Leon, whose insider's view shows how crime seeps throughout the city, touching all strata of society."--Mystery Scene
