2008-04-12 Good, But Not Her Best

Once again we visit the wonders of Venice alongside Commissario Guido Brunetti. The theme this time around is the racket in illegal adoptions of children, usually from abroad or foreign mothers in Italy.

All of the Brunetti books are excellent, but I had one problem with this one. Every single sensible person in the story thinks it was completely wrong to take a toddler away from the family who has brought him up for 18 months after an illegal adoption and to turn him over to social services (and presumably an orphanage). The implication is that breaking the law should be ignored, and the possibility that social services might find a loving family to legally adopt the child is not even considered. But considering the point made about the demand for children, one would think that there should be no problem finding suitable parents.

Moreover, there seems to be an immediate leap from bad news at fertility clinics to buying a baby from an illegal immigrant. Perhaps in Catholic Italy there are no surrogate mothers, but if that is so, it would have been nice for someone to comment that such an alternative didn't exist.

Sometimes the conversation seems a bit forced as well, as if Donna Leon was in hurry to get the book written. On the other hand, the depiction of a very unsavory right wing extremist anti-immigrant political party is very good, and somewhat frightening.

There are some surprises at the end, and the book is a fine read. Just not as good as some of the previous stories in the series. There could have been more as well about the baby buying racket. We really only get an insight in one particular, and apparently untypical, case.