Reviews for The Girl of His Dreams (Guido Brunetti Series #17)

The average rating for The Girl of His Dreams (Guido Brunetti Series #17) based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-26 00:00:00 W H E Schulz The Girl of His Dreams, the 17th novel in Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti Series opens with Brunetti attending his mother's funeral, where he's approached by a priest, a friend of Brunetti's brother, asking him to investigate a new age minister who may be swindling Venetian old parishioners. There is quite a few things that happen in this story but the main mystery that Brunetti and Vianello investigate relates to a body of a young girl found in one of the city's canals. This leads them into the local gypsy communities and how children are used to rob the homes of the local rich Venetian community. Corruption continues to erode Brunetti's beloved city. Bribes are an accepted part of Venetian life. In recent years, Brunetti had begun to see the death of the young as the theft of years, decades, generations. Each time he learned of the willed, unnecessary destruction of a young person, whether it was the result of crime or of one of the many futile wars that snuffed out their lives, he counted out the years until they would have been seventy and added up the plundered years of life. His own government had stolen centuries; other governments had stolen millennia, had stamped out the joy these kids might and should have had. Even if life had brought them misery or pain, it would still have brought them life, not the void that Brunetti saw looming after death. We continue following Brunetti's life with his family and his work colleagues, which is a total pleasure. The last couple of books in this series have been somewhat lackluster and I am happy to say that this is a much better one.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-04-29 00:00:00 Geno Orum I love the Brunetti books and greedily read this in one sitting, but unfortunately I was disappointed. The first part of the story consisted of a lengthy soapbox criticism of the Catholic Church, and while I actually agree with that criticism, I heard in it too much of the author's voice (rather than the character's) and I found it extremely distracting. I read a long interview with Leon a while back in which she was strident in her negative opinions about America, the Church etc and now I'm having a hard time separating that out and just enjoying her books. It was particularly difficult in this case, as that side story about the priest petered out into nothing; it simply seemed like an excuse for a good rant. Oh well... Hopefully she'll keep her eye on the ball in the next one.