TRANSIENT DESIRES by DONNA LEON

 

                         

By Margaret S. Hamilton

 

Donna Leon recently published her thirtieth Commissario Brunetti mystery, set in Venice. In Transient Desires, Brunetti is a seasoned detective superintendent with the Questura, or state police. A native Venetian, he delights in navigating his city by foot, on a vaporetto, or in a police launch. He is devoted to his wife and teenage children, routinely goes home for family lunch, and reads the ancient Roman historian Tacitus for pleasure.

 

Brunetti is intrigued by a case outside his jurisdiction: two American young women, both injured, are left on the water ambulance dock at the local hospital. After viewing CCTV footage, the police identify the young men who left them. Brunetti interviews the men—one well-educated, from a wealthy family, the other a laborer working for his uncle, who runs a cargo transport service.

 

Sensing there is more to the story than a simple nighttime boating accident, Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, investigate the two young men and their connection to the cargo company. Brunetti enlists the aid of the Carabinieri (national police) and Guardia di Costiere (coast guard) to halt a smuggling operation.

 

As in her other books, Leon introduces moral and ethical dilemmas to the narrative. In Transient Desires, Brunetti confronts his prejudices against the working class and Italians from other parts of Italy, particularly Naples. Brunetti speaks Venetian when he questions Venetian residents, and his colleague Claudia Griffoni uses her native Neapolitan language when interviewing certain suspects. Both can be considered separate Romance languages, Venetian closer to Spanish and French than present-day Tuscan Italian. Griffoni accuses him:

 

“At the mere sound of my accent, you began to assume that everything I’ve done in the last years is open to question, and at heart I might remain the ignorant terrona that many of our colleagues still suspect me of being.”

It was by force of will that Brunetti kept her gaze and allowed her to see the flush of shame he could not control and could not stop. (p.118)

 

Leon’s narrative is quiet and contemplative, punctuated by Brunetti’s heated debates with his teenage children, and his relationship with the two young men under police investigation:

 

Brunetti realized he had enjoyed dealing with the young lawyer, had taken pleasure in sparring with him, and seeing how good the younger man would some day be at it. He had appreciated his manners, even as the two of them took their first jabs at one another. The young man thought quickly, did not descend into sarcasm, was relentlessly polite. They are so fragile, young people, Brunetti reflected, their self-assurance such a thin layer. (p.67)

 

In her books, Donna Leon dives deeply into her main character, his actions, and motivations. In Transient Desires, Brunetti’s involvement with a major investigation outside his purview will undoubtedly have repercussions for his future career.

 

Readers and writers, do you enjoy reading about the moral and ethical dilemmas of law enforcement or other crime solvers?