Unto us a son is given
Leon, Donna
"Your situation is always ambiguous
isn't it
Guido?"
his father-in-law
Count Orazio Falier
observes of Donna Leon's soulful detective
Guido Brunetti
at the beginning of her superb 28th Brunetti novel
Unto Us A Son Is Given . "The world we live in makes that necessary
" Brunetti presciently replies. Count Falier was urging his Venetian son-in-law to investigate
and preferably intervene in
the seemingly innocent plan of the Count's best friend
the elderly Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejada
to adopt a much younger man as his son. Under Italian inheritance laws this man would then be heir to Gonzalo's entire fortune
a prospect Gonzalo's friends find appalling. For his part
Brunetti wonders why the old man
a close family friend
can't be allowed his pleasure in peace. And yet
what seems innocent on the Venetian surface can cause tsunamis beneath. Gonzalo unexpectedly
and literally
drops dead on the street
and one of his friends just arrived in Venice for the memorial service
is strangled in her hotel room--having earlier sent Gonzalo an email saying "We are the only ones who know you cannot do this
" referring to the adoption. Now with an urgent case to solve
Brunetti reluctantly untangles the long-hidden mystery in Gonzalo's life that ultimately led to murder--a resolution that brings him way more pain than satisfaction.
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