by C de Burlet

Created on: May 14, 2009   Last Updated: May 18, 2009

What do you do when you are free, the wife and kids have gone out, and it's Saturday morning? Very likely, you'll do what Donna Leon's hero does in "Friends in High Places". Commissario Brunetti lies on the couch with his favourite book, reading or pretending to do so. Unfortunately, the doorbell rings. Whoever rings it refuses to give up, so in the end Brunetti gets up and opens the door. Outside stands Signor Rossi from the Officio Catasto, the Venetian office checking buildings and building activities. His visit results in the threat of part of the Brunetti-apartment having to be destroyed, as it has been illegally added to the building - according to official regulations and paperwork.

Fortunately, it's Italy so it takes months before Commissario Brunetti is contacted again. When Rossi does call, he wants to meet Brunetti, but ends up in hospital after a fall from a high scaffolding. Brunetti is left with things that don't add up and starts to question people. Things refuse to add up and together with Vianello, Brunetti starts an unofficial investigation.

Unofficial, for people like doctors, Rossi's colleagues at the Officio Catasto, and even Vice-Questore Patta refuse to believe that various deaths are anything but accidental. Patta himself has other problems on his plate as his son has been arrested. He asks Brunetti for help, but in the end Patta's son gets off thanks to Patta having friends in the right places. By then, Brunetti and Vianello have resorted to a dirty trick to flush out a murderer. The murderer turns out to be related to an important Venetian family, a member of whom works at the Officio Catasto.

Despite a few light-hearted intermezzos, this is one of Donna Leon's darker thrillers from the Commissario Brunetti series. During the investigation Brunetti is fully aware that he himself becomes corrupt: "... all the time conscious of how enormous a debt he was running up. When it came time to pay it back, ..., he knew it would be at the cost of some principle or the flouting of some law." (p. 300). In an earlier scene with Paola, Brunetti draws the conclusion that one "... couldn't corrupt a system that was already corrupt, had probably been born corrupt. ..., he realized that a return to the ideals of their youth was no guarantee of peace of mind." (pp 292-293)

So the message of this thriller is bleak, but this should not deter you from reading it. As a detective story it has the usual twists and turns and a satisfying conclusion. The main characters are certainly not flat, but very human. Though it starts off slowly, the first few chapters draw the reader into Brunetti's family life and life in Venice and make all that follows very plausible. In short, like all the Brunetti thrillers, it's well written, well thought-out, and a very satisfying read.

"Friends In High Places" by Donna Leon, paperback published by Arrow Books UK in 2001, pp 337.

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