Transient Desires is the latest (2021) in the Guido Brunetti series by Donna Leon. I love this series in general, and had a chance to read an advance review copy of this title back in March and loved it too. (One note: Leon does have some pretty harsh endings from time-to-time, and this one, although not inappropriate, is one of her harsher ones.)
Desires has dropped to £0.99 at Kindle UK in that odd but wonderful way that the UK has of getting new titles on sale (albeit usually very briefly, usually only one day) for £0.99 long before they go on sale in the US. This is one book that I bought before doing the post, because I didn't want to miss it!
Kindle UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08PF82T5X/
Kindle UK/Smile:
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08PF82T5X/
Spoiler:
Quote:
'The climax is nothing less than a trip - across the laguna - into the heart of darkness ... Leon's special skill is to splice glimpses of la dolce vita with acute analysis of moral and ethical dilemmas ... The series that has shadowed Brunetti for three decades is an epic achievement.' The Times
Chosen as Star Pick in the Sunday Times Crime Club
Chosen as a 'Best New Crime Novel' in the Sunday Times
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In his many years as a Commissario, Guido Brunetti has seen all manner of crime and known intuitively how to navigate the various pathways in his native Venice to discover the person responsible. Now, in the thirtieth novel in Donna Leon's masterful series, he faces a heinous crime committed outside his jurisdiction. He is drawn in innocently enough: two young American women have been badly injured in a boating accident, joy riding in the Laguna with two young Italians. However, Brunetti's curiosity is aroused by the behaviour of the young men, who abandoned the victims after taking them to the hospital. If the injuries were the result of an accident, why did they want to avoid association with it?
As Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, investigate the incident, they discover that one of the young men works for a man rumoured to be involved in more sinister night-time activities in the Laguna. To get to the bottom of what proves to be a gut-wrenching case, Brunetti needs to enlist the help of both the Carabinieri and the Guardia Costiera. Determining how much trust he and Griffoni can put in these unfamiliar colleagues adds to the difficulty of solving a peculiarly horrible crime whose perpetrators are technologically brilliant and ruthlessly organised.
Donna Leon's thirtieth Brunetti novel is as powerful as any she has written, testing Brunetti to his limits, forcing him to listen very carefully for the truth.
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