There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you prepare to settle down and continue reading a good book that takes all your attention. Finding an author who will deliver feels like meeting a good friend. You know you are going to be entertained.
These were my feelings recently while in the local library when I spotted Give Unto Others by Donna Leon. I haven't read one of Donna Leon's novels for some time, so I was delighted to find this latest one. Having visited Venice on a number of occasions, I love to read about it and recall those trips. I remember being there as guest of a hotel chain the first time. We were invited to dinner across the lagoon, the hotel transported us there by boat. When dinner was over and we emerged into the October night, we discovered that there was a violent storm. We were quickly told that all hotel boats were cancelled and we would have to use public transport, i.e. the vaporetto. I can't swim and am scared of waves but I managed to jump on board, and I mean jump, inbetween the bobbing motion. And that's when I discovered that my thirst for adventure was somewhat abated, because when we got back to the hotel after a very choppy ride, a few of us opted to stay indoors over a nightcap while the more adventurous went out to sample night life in Venice. Looking out of my bedroom window that night, I could hear the storm and the creak of the gondolas rubbing against each other in the window. I can still remember it.
I returned to Venice once or twice in the summer and found it less mysterious in the July heat, I have to admit. There is something magical about the place, the fact that you walk along a pavement and turn the corner and then there is just a canal. But that stormy October was what made me fall in love with this city.
Love the cover of this book. It captures the atmosphere of the Venice I remember. A Commissario Brunetti mystery set in Venice, complete with mention of the palazzos, the vaporettos and the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo and of course Piazzo San Marco? Yes, yes, yes. Bring it on.
