Trace Elements

By: Donna Leon

Narrated by: David Colacci

From the New York Times best-selling author of Unto Us a Son Is Given comes one of her most dark and thrilling mysteries yet.

A woman’s cryptic dying words in a Venetian hospice lead Guido Brunetti to uncover a threat to the entire region in Donna Leon’s haunting 29th Brunetti novel.

When Dottoressa Donato calls the Questura to report that a dying patient at the hospice Fatebenefratelli wants to speak to the police, Commissario Guido Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, waste no time in responding.

“They killed him. It was bad money. I told him no”, Benedetta Toso gasps the words about her recently-deceased husband, Vittorio Fadalto. Even though he is not sure she can hear him Brunetti softly promises he and Griffoni will look into what initially appears to be a private family tragedy. They discover that Fadalto worked in the field collecting samples of contamination for a company that measures the cleanliness of Venice’s water supply and that he had died in a mysterious motorcycle accident. Distracted briefly by Vice Questore Patta’s obsession with youth crime in Venice, Brunetti is bolstered once more by the remarkable research skills of Patta’s secretary, Signora Elettra Zorzi. Piecing together the tangled threads, in time Brunetti comes to realize the perilous meaning in the woman’s accusation and the threat it reveals to the health of the entire region. But justice in this case proves to be ambiguous, as Brunetti is reminded it can be when, seeking solace, he reads Aeschylus’s classic play The Eumenides.

As she has done so often through her memorable characters and storytelling skill, Donna Leon once again engages our sensibilities as to the differences between guilt and responsibility.

©2020 Donna Leon (P)2020 Recorded Books

Compassionate and truth

Great story. Evil lurks behind the plot, and the evidence condemns two people, but power and reality win out for only one.

Awesome in its timelyness.

Ms. Leon never fails to educate, entertain and make her readers think. I have been a fan for many years and always take the opportunity to recommend her books.

Donna Leone always delivers

A large part of this pleasure is descriptions of Venice locations and food. We’ve been to the Biennale 8 times and have some familiarity with the city. Our final visit was 2 years ago and even for this tourist, the crush of tourists was terrible. Poor Venice it’s so wonderful.

Not her best, but still very good

I think I could be happy just reading her descriptions of the daily lives of her characters, they are rendered with such humor, patience, and style. The plot here is not unfamiliar, but still well rendered by the author. One caveat: her ending left me a bit unsatisfied.To say more would be to spoil.

The inimitable Brunetti ponders another crime

There is something about the ever-reassuring, thoughtful and gentle Brunetti that keeps me coming back to these novels. What a clever way Ms Leon has over the years presented Venetian crime and, in most cases, lack of punishment. I look forward to each one and appreciate the insights and descriptions.