Beastly Things

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Italy may be sinking into the financial mire but Venice is still milking the tourists and corpses continue to float in its canals. The stabbed one that concerns Commissario Brunetti in this case turns out to be that of a vet suffering from Madelung’s disease, a non-fatal condition that turns the victim into the shape of a barrel. No wonder he was a floater.

Aided once again by the cyber-criminal knowhow of Signorina Elettra, Brunetti and his sidekick Vianello are led to a slaughterhouse on the mainland, a visit that leaves the reader in no doubt that meat is murder. When it comes to literary quotation, Brunetti is the equal of Morse. Some words of William James, brother of Henry, lie at the heart of Beastly Things: the human eye is always pulled to “things that move, things that savour of blood”.

This fine atmospheric novel, mainly consisting of clever conversation and spiky interviews, proves James’s point. It takes Brunetti a long time to get to the bottom of the nasty tale of greed but, as always with Leon, it is the journey that counts. Twenty-one books on, she has lost none of her delightful skill and wit.

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