Do you like ice cream? Of course you like ice cream! If you haven’t read my last post about National Ice Cream Cone Day and mysteries that include ice cream as part of the story, check it out now!
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
There seems to be a water theme to my reading the last couple of weeks. Five of the last seven books I have read (oh, and one more in progress – so six out of eight,) have included water as a major part of the setting and action. And the last book I published is Dark Water under the Bridge. Funny that they seem to be following a theme right now!
Today’s book is The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon (which I thought was interesting, as Ponce de Leon was supposed to have found the Fountain of Eternal Youth— But this is book number 25 in the Commissario Brunetti series and appears to be the only book with any eternal youth references.) In this case, “eternal youth” does not refer to the body not aging, but to a character whose development was stymied by hypoxic brain damage after a near drowning in one of the canals.
This police procedural is steeped in the culture and setting of Venice, with fascinating descriptions of the many unique aspects of life and police work in this setting. The characters are well-developed and interesting, humorous at times. I had no difficulty in following the story despite not having read the previous books in the series. I would certainly read more in this series.
I think it’s rash to give the gift of trust to people we don’t know well.
Donna Leon, The Waters of Eternal Youth
At a fundraising dinner for a Venetian charity, a wealthy and aristocratic patroness asks Brunetti if he will investigate the fifteen-year-old attempted drowning of her granddaughter, which left the girl irreparably brain damaged. Brunetti’s not sure what to do, but out of a mixture of curiosity, pity, and a willingness to fulfill the wishes of a guilt-wracked older woman—who happens to be his mother-in-law’s best friend—he agrees.
Brunetti soon finds himself unable to let the case rest, if indeed there is a case. Awash in the haunting story of a woman trapped in a damaged perpetual childhood and the rhythms and concerns of contemporary Venetian life, from historical preservation to housing to new waves of African migrants, The Waters of Eternal Youth is another wonderful addition to this series.
