Give Unto Others by Donna Leon

GIVE UNTO OTHERS by Donna Leon is book 31 in the mystery series set in Venice which features Commissario Guido Brunetti. In this latest selection, we need to talk about Bruno del Balzo, the husband of Elisabetta Foscarini, herself a former neighbor of Brunetti. Initially Elisabetta asks for Brunetti’s unofficial help due to disquiet about her daughter and accountant son-in-law; there’s an implication that it involves some financial irregularities and Brunetti struggles with questions of loyalty and whether he should be asking his colleagues to investigate this rather personal matter. Without a murder or actual crime, the story revolves more around the psychological motivation of characters and Leon assumes that readers are familiar with long-time colleagues of Brunetti. An engaging story in a beautiful setting, GIVE UNTO OTHERS received a starred review from Booklist. Donna Leon is a mystery writer often recommended by Hillary Clinton and two other recent mysteries worth reading are State of Terror, co-written by Clinton and Louise Penny, plus The Madness of Crowds, Penny’s latest in the Inspector Gamache series. Secretary of State Ellen Adams takes on international terrorists and contemporary, power-hungry Washington in State of Terror; we enjoyed the audiobook version on a recent road trip. The Madness of Crowds has a beautiful cover and received multiple starred reviews (Booklist, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly) for another mystery set in Three Pines where, Gamache, too, has to struggle with ethical questions.