Fatal Remedies | 
| Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 6049
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0143112422
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780143112426
ASIN: 0143112422
Publication Date: September 25, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: A used ex-library copy. Library markings. Pages are somewhat worn. Cover worn with some creases. Worn edges and corners. Binding solid and tight.
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Product Description
Donna Leons multitude of fans around the world has grown with each new Commissario Brunetti novel, and now mystery lovers in the United States can enjoy another compelling episode. In Fatal Remedies, Brunettis career is under threat when his professional and personal lives unexpectedly intersect. In the chill of the Venetian dawn, a sudden act of vandalism shatters the quiet of the deserted city, and Brunetti is shocked to find that the culprit waiting to be apprehended at the scene is a member of his own family. Meanwhile, he is also under pressure from his superiors to solve a daring robbery with connections to a suspicious accidental death. Could the two crimes be connected? And will Brunetti be able to prove his familys innocence before its too late?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
A Husband and Wife in Crisis July 12, 2008
For the first time Donna Leon brings both Brunetti and his wife Paola into the body of the story at the same time. Dottoria Paola (the future Contessa) has always been determined and headstrong (a barely covered stand in for Leon). She has her own mind and is not afraid to express it. In this case it has to do with the sending of Italian men on 'sex vacations' to Asia, where they have sex with young girls and boys.
Leon does a fine job in tying it into a murder that Guido is working on without doing any silly gyrations. The flow of the story intertwines the two plots but with a deft and subtle hand and it never feels like Leon has added something to 'jigger' the story. All in all a fine addition to a well written series.
Donna Leon, Not a Gondola In Sight June 28, 2008
Donna Leon now makes Venice her home. In her mysteries, if you know Venice well, you'll have the thrill of rediscovery as she walks you through familiar campos, stroll by the Grand Canal, take a vaporetto to a destination, eat local pastries and foods. Her detective inspector hero is Commissario Brunetti who has a loving wife, two great kids, and a great home life, but is always at odds with his superiors. He likes those Venetian pastries and all the great food and seems lethargic, but he is far from being slow-witted.
In this outing his wife on two occasions as a protest throws a rock through the window of a travel agency that caters to sex tourists. This causes her husband great sorrow and embarrassment, but he is even more aggravated when a murder connected to her action takes place. The book's title is very appropriate to the plot.
In the beginning is the description of a clever game. When the staff attends boring meetings, they play buzz word bingo. When the meeting's chairman says a certain buzz word, they can relieve boredom by matching the buzz word up with specially prepared cards that have the buzz words instead of bingo numbers.
The narrative rolls along smoothly as the gentle, kindly, philosophical Brunetti copes with police work as well as the corruption and inefficiency of the Italian state. Brunetti says, "There are days when I think everything's getting worse, then there are days when I know they are. But then the sun comes out, and I change my mind."
This mystery has a very sharp depiction of the women characters and female psychology. It even has a gun fight. But in general Leon's mysteries have more reflection than action. This is one of her better efforts with a clear cut narrative. Venice is the key setting, but not as much of a character in this book as in some of her others. Little asides about the water damage and dampness in the hallways of buildings makes us realize how fragile the city's infrastructure is. Brunetti is an anti-hero that you come to like because he's an old-fashioned, amiable soul adrift in a society that has, in many ways, passed him by.
Nine Lives Too Many
The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy
Clawed Back from the Dead
The Post-America World June 14, 2008
This is an excellently-written and entertaining view of how the balance of world power and influence is likely to change in the coming decades. It presents a sensible, balanced and persuasive case for the increasing influence of emerging countries such as China and India, without in any way creating an alarmist scenario for the future of America.
 Behind Every Man May 21, 2008
If you believe that behind every successful man there is a strong woman, then you will love Commissario Brunetti's wife, Paola. She is more than a background character and we learn a great deal about their relationship in another of Leon's good mysteries.
Donna Leon leads a high mystery parade! May 7, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Donna Leon's eighth novel in her Commissario Guido Brunetti series is another crown of glory for this American writer. In "Fatal Remedies," Leon, ever the one to keep her readers' absolute attention riveted to all details, continues her intriguing mise en scene mysteries with sharp focus, clarity of detail, and powerful character observations. This book is well worth the wait.
Leon begins with a new twist: Brunetti's wife Paola has been arrested for smashing the window of a travel agency which she knows arranges sex-tours to third-world countries where Westerners exploit, especially, the child-for-sex trade. This is an issue which Paola finds she cannot permit to go unnoticed, having two children of her own. Like Antigone, her sense of moral outrage at an issue the state does nothing about extends to the point where she takes the law into her own hands. Through her personal crusade, she hopes to call attention to this social canker and, with public outrage she hopes to generate this evil will be halted. She believes that she is prepared to take the consequences for her own actions. It is not so simple, she finds out. Unfortunately, she discovers that her own crusade has negative ramifications for her family and that instead of halting one injustice, she appears to be compounding another by hurting the ones she loves....Brunetti is called back to work and the chase begins.
Brunetti, whose passion for truth, justice, equality, and respect for his beloved Venice, finds himself once again forced to confront moral and legal dilemmas. Leon is at her best and "Fatal Remedies" doesn't miss a beat as the pace picks up, page by page...Leon is not one to dodge social and contemporary issues, as her readers well know from previous books. Her views on environmental destruction (and how the Italian government and its citizens view the subject), social and political corruption, and such social issues as sex-tourism and the importation of former East Bloc citizens to work the local prostitution trade are readily identified. And the author is not timid in her criticism. It's not that she is indicting Italy and the Italians, but that these ills seem to be pervasive.
Leon, an American, lives in Venice and knows the Italians well, but she has lived in other countries (previously she had taught English at an American university at the Vicenza U.S. Army post) and is well versed on contemporary issues. And she loves Venice. Each of her novels tenders her feelings for the Most Serene Republic and readers cannot escape without feeling the life, the very essence of Venice, and her knowledge of that city's history and its ethnic origins make her books ring with a resonance that is real yet we know her story is "only a novel."
In "Fatal Remedies," Leon counts on her readers to assume much (in fact, a first-time reader may be confused by references that are clear only from having read earlier works), which is a shortcoming of individual works in such series; however, as "a part of the whole" this book works well and contains all the ingredients Leon has so successfully concocted in the past. The publisher tells us that she is currently working on a new installment. Shall we count the days?
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