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and life along the winding road

Friday, January 13, 2017

The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon

Product DetailsDonna Leon has long been one of my favorite authors. I love imagining a walk beside Commissario Brunetti along the canals of Venice. As most of you know, Italy, and Venice in particular, is my favorite place to visit.

It's been a while since I've read any of the Guido Brunetti series and after looking through Donna Leon's list of books, realized I've missed a few books, but I found The Waters of Eternal Youth on our local library e-book list and took advantage of the chance to read it on my Kindle.

By the way, FantasticFiction.com is a great place to look up your favorite author and get an up to date list of published books.

From the cover:
In Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti series, the Venetian inspector has been called on to investigate many things, from shocking to petty crimes. But inThe Waters of Eternal Youth, the 25th novel in this celebrated series, Brunetti finds himself drawn into a case that may not be a case at all.

Fifteen years ago, a teenage girl fell into a canal late at night. Unable to swim, she went under and started to drown, only surviving thanks to a nearby man, an alcoholic, who heard her splashes and pulled her out, though not before she suffered irreparable brain damage that left her in a state of permanent childhood, unable to learn or mature. The drunk man claimed he saw her thrown into the canal by another man, but the following day he couldn’t remember a thing.

Now, at a fundraising dinner for a Venetian charity, a wealthy and aristocratic patroness—the girl’s grandmother—asks Brunetti if he will investigate. Brunetti’s not sure what to do. If a crime was committed, it would surely have passed the statute of limitations. But out of a mixture of curiosity, pity, and a willingness to fulfill the wishes of a guilt-wracked older woman, who happens to be his mother-in-law’s best friend, he agrees.

The series appears to have been filmed, but I could only find it in German!