Give Unto Others

Commissario Brunetti Mysteries, Book 31

By: Donna Leon

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Brunetti is forced to confront the price of loyalty, to his past and in his work, as a seemingly innocent request leads him into troubling waters.

What role can or should loyalty play in the life of a police inspector? It’s a question Commissario Guido Brunetti must face and ultimately answer in Give Unto Others, Donna Leon’s splendid 31st installment of her acclaimed Venetian crime series.

Brunetti is approached for a favor by Elisabetta Foscarini, a woman he knows casually, but her mother was good to Brunetti’s mother, so he feels obliged to at least look into the matter privately, and not as official police business. Foscarini’s son-in-law, Enrico Fenzo, has alarmed his wife (her daughter) by confessing their family might be in danger because of something he’s involved with. Since Fenzo is an accountant, Brunetti logically suspects the cause of danger is related to the finances of a client. Yet his clients seem benign: an optician, a restaurateur, a charity established by his father-in-law. However, when his friend’s daughter’s place of work is vandalized, Brunetti asks his own favors - that his colleagues Claudia Griffoni, Lorenzo Vianello, and Signorina Elettra Zorzi assist his private investigation, which soon enough turns official as they uncover the dark and Janus-faced nature of a venerable Italian institution.

Exploring the wobbly line between the criminal and non-criminal, revealing previously untold elements of Brunetti’s past, Give Unto Others shows that the price of reciprocity can be steep.

©2022 Donna Leon (P)2022 Recorded Books

Best of the series

Wonderful book David’s performance is magical and having visited Venice I felt as if I was there walking along the canals

Thirty one books and still wonderful

Donna Leon writes excellent prose and dialogue. And characters, and settings. Even this, the thirty-first book in this series, puts the reader smack in the middle of Venice, with its rot, its beauty, and its crime. But, sadly, I think, like Bruno, this book is showing its age.

We have brief mentions of Bruno’s family. The dialogue within the family are some of Leon’s best so I missed having more of it.

The story itself was good. Not one of the best in the series but interesting. I was disappointed in the way the ending played out resulting in only 4 stars.

David Colacci’s narration, as always, was perfect. He is definitely the voice of Guido.

I certainly hope that we have several more Guido Brunetti books.

Slower listen

Relistening recommended to appreciate the richness of the character of Guido and Paolo. I like reading their lives better thats all.

Complex.

Excellent character studies. The mystery is in the human behavior. One of her most interesting.

Donna Leon does it again

I am a fan. and she never lets me down. well written, great characters, great plot.

Donna Leon does it again!!

Wonderful story and as always a true mystery to the end and it is a great visit to Venice.

Donna succeeds..again.

When I've read through a book a third time and still can't find a fault except, perhaps, mine for missing something the first or second time, I know I've been thrilled again. Thanks Donna.

Who doesn't love Venezia??

Ms. Leon has hooked me again with my favorite cast of characters, headed by Guodo Brunetti, his family and work friends. This book touches on Alzheimers and the destruction it brings to entire families with perhaps more depth than in previous books where we've suffered with Guido through his mother's illness and death. We are again pulled into a web of intrigue driven by selfishness and greed...always destructive forces. Do visit Venice with Guido and company!

Slow but intriguing

As in all of Donna Leon’s books the hero and my favorite is always inspector Guido Brunelli

Donna Leon never disapppoints.

Always multiple story lines that converge in the conclusion. Love learning about the different places in Venice as well as a little vocabulary.