3. Blood From a Stone

At the beginning of the summer, my neighbor loaned me a stack of Donna Leon's Venice-set Inspector Brunetti mysteries, and I've been reading my way through a good chunk of the series ever since. With Brunetti, we trawl the seedy underbelly of Venice and of Italian bureaucracy; as in most of the crime and mystery fiction I enjoy, justice does not always prevail. Despite the cynicism, Leon's books are still a bit lighter than much of my usual fare in the genre: Brunetti takes pleasure and refuge in his family (his wife Paola is a left-wing professor of American literature), good food, good wine, and his two friends at the Questura--his fellow policeman Vianello and the indefatigable Signora Elettra, who, in the guise of a department secretary, hacks into systems all over Italy and (sometimes) keeps Brunetti's corrupt boss Patta at bay.

Blood from a Stone begins with the execution-style murder of a vu cumpra--one of the many African street vendors who entice tourists with knockoff designer goods--and wends its way through a web of international corruption and conspiracy. While this wasn't among my favorites of the series, Leon's always satisfying, always entertaining, and always leaves me with a bitter undertaste to counter the mouth-watering meals Brunetti enjoys as he relentlessly pursues his often-hopeless cases.

From the book:

When Rubini showed up more than ten minutes later, a stack of files in his hands, he explained that the delay was caused by his having searched for the file containing all of the photos that had been taken of the Africans who had been arrested in the last year. "We're supposed to photograph them every time we arrest them," he explained.

"Supposed to?" Brunetti asked.

Rubini set a large stack of papers on Brunetti's desk and sat down. From Murano, Rubini had been on the force for more than two decades, and, like Vianello, had moved up through the ranks slowly, perhaps blocked by the same refusal to curry favor with the men in power. Tall and so thin as to seem emaciated, Rubini was in fact a passionate rower and every year was among the first ten to cross the finish line of the Vogalonga.

"We did at the beginning, but after a while it seemed a waste of time to take the photo of a man we'd arrested six or seven times and who we say hello to on the street." He pushed the papers closer to Brunetti and added, "We call them tu by now, and they address us all by name."

Brunetti pulled the papers towards him. "Why do you still bother?"

"What, to arrest them?"

Brunetti nodded.

"Dottor Patta wants arrests, so we go and arrest them. It makes the statistics look good."

Blood From a Stone on Amazon UK