A Sea of Troubles: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery

Donna Leon never disappoints, Guido Brunetti and his team are back for another case of murder. It is a well constructed murder mystery and this time we see Senorina Ellectra in action. The only disappointment for me was that I missed spending time with the Brunetti family. Other titles by Donna Leon have more of this. I love the family scenes over lunch and dinner.

David Colacci does an excellent job, as usual.

I have always enjoyed Donna Leon's books, but this is short on plot, and an unsuccessful attempt at suspense and sex.

This book in this series was compelling to me because it has some of the other regular characters involved in the action of the story. Paola and Electra, the two women in Brunetti's life, come into the story and give it the "extra" something that keeps you turning the pages.

The storm and how it played out was gripping.

The narrator always does a great job. I enjoy the interspersed italian. It doesn't sound forced with David Colacci doing it.

I found reasons to slip on my ipod every chance I got to finish this book.

Very slow to develop, this was the only disappointing Donna Leon book I have read, out of about 5 so far.

I agree with the reviewer who found Electra's loss of composure out of character. I must strongly disagree with the reviewer who preferred the Crossley narration of another Leon novel. Narrators, like actors, must be cast with great care. A miscalculation can ruin the performance. Such is the case with Leon's Brunetti novels. Colacci's command of the accent and the voice he gives to the recurring characters is brilliant.

Steven Crossley is a fine performer. His narrations of Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog and, appropriately, Jerome's Three Men in a Boat were inspired. However, there is no sense of the Venetian setting in Crossley's narration of Willful Behavior and the mispronunciations (see prior reviews) are a bit ear-grating to listeners of this series. These problems may be down to the direction. However that may be, this listener is of the strong opinion that Colacci is the (far) more preferable narrator for the Brunetti series.

Storms, mayhem, murder, drama! Miss Electra falls blindly in love! Donna Leon gets away from her dry ironic style and jumps the shark trying to inject some action drama into the Brunetti series. This story is a real disappointment. If it represents a new direction for the series, I've read my last.

A few books ago, I had the pleasure of listening, for the first time, to a Donna Leon book --"Willful Behavior". It was great - both the story and the performance by narrator Steven Crossley. I was hooked. I hurriedly downloaded Leon's "A Sea of Trouble" but was very disappointed with the performance of David Colacci. So disappointed, in fact, I could not get through an hour of listening. To me the pace was slow and bumbling . I will seek further Leon books read by Crossley or visit the library for the written text.