Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon

Atmospheric page turner plumbs the murky depths of Venetian daily life

Brunetti is investigating the murder of Signora Battestini, a miserly old woman who was disliked by everyone in Venice who knew her.

He has two things motivating him to solve the murder of this unpleasant old woman. One is to exonerate Flori, her domestic helper, who is now dead herself. He has been given evidence that shows she could not possibly have killed her employer.

The second is to stop another police officer from harassing and trying to discredit Signora Gismondi, a neighbour of the victim, who claims she can prove the domestic helper’s innocence.

It is the summer and his work is made all the more arduous because of the extreme heat in his beloved home city, but he works determinedly to find who was really responsible for Signora Battestini‘s death. He does not want the murder to remain unsolved and the dead Romanian domestic to be presumed guilty while the real killer is still at large.

Signora Battestini was found alone in her apartment with her head battered in, by her doctor when he paid his monthly visit.

Her maid, Flori, was on a train for Romania when police boarded it and searched the carriages. Asked for her documents, she panicked and made a run for it and was hit by a train when she crossed the tracks.

For Brunetti’s nemesis, Lieutenant Scarpa, who is investigating the death, it means that the case is closed. However, when the victim’s neighbour, Signora Gismondi, returns from a business trip to London and reads about the murder, she knows that Flori could not possibly have been the murderer.

Before going on her trip, she had rescued Flori after her cantankerous employer had locked her out of the apartment without any of her possessions. She had seen Signora Battestini at the window making gestures to Flori and when the unhappy maid had told her she just wanted to return to Romania, she had given her money and taken her to the station and put her on the train.

But when she tries to explain this to Lieutenant Scarpa, he does not believe her and tells her that Flori was guilty and the case is closed. Brunetti later gives her a more sympathetic hearing and he sets out to investigate for himself.

With Sergeant Vianello at his side, he looks into the old woman’s past and her financial affairs, and those of her dead husband and son. He finds out she was very wealthy, despite seeming to live in poverty and having earned a reputation for extreme meanness.

Sustained by lavish meals cooked by his wife, Paola, and evening drinks on their terrace while they discuss the meaning of life, he keeps digging until he finds out the truth.

He even personally searches the attic of the old lady’s apartment and methodically goes through the bizarre items she has hoarded, until he finds the real motive for the murder.

Doctored Evidence has a complex plot and the reader learns more about life in Venice along the way. This 13th book in the series is a good reminder of why I should keep reading Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti novels.

Murder in Tuscany by T A Williams

An Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mystery

Murder in Tuscany introduces
detective Dan Armstrong

This first crime novel by T A Williams is set in the Tuscan hills above Florence and has many descriptions of the gorgeous scenery and local food and wine enjoyed by the characters.

Villa Volpone, the home of the best-selling crime novelist, Jonah Moore, is hosting a creative writing course, and among the 11 students are writers of erotic novels at various stages in their careers.  Some are established authors - ladies in their sixties, seventies and eighties - and some of the younger ones are yet to publish their first books.

Standing out from the other students is retired Detective Chief Inspector Dan Armstrong, who has still not finished his first novel, an historical murder mystery set in Florence. His former colleagues have paid for the course as a retirement present for him and have chosen the genre of erotica, either by mistake, or for a laugh.

Although he has misgivings about the focus of the course, Dan has been persuaded to participate anyway by his daughter, and he also feels in need of a holiday, having just parted from his wife after many years of marriage. He is looking forward to exploring Florence in his free time, to gather background material for his own book.

His host, Jonah Moore, turns out to be arrogant and unashamedly lecherous towards the younger women, and not many tears are shed after he is discovered in the dining room with his own Silver Dagger award sticking out of his chest.

Dan has already met the investigating officer in the case, Commissario Virgilio Pisano, who is a friend of one of his ex-colleagues. Pisano is keen to have Dan to help out with the investigation with his translation skills, and he also encourages him to share his own ideas about the murder, based on his long experience.

T A Williams, a romance author
with a taste for crime

Once you get into the novel you become more acquainted with the cast of characters, some of who are described at the beginning by Dan as ‘septuagenarians who are remarkably sprightly for their advancing years,’ which I thought might seem patronising to older readers who are active and still have careers. But nonetheless, Murder in Tuscany is an enjoyable read.

Dan is a likeable character and remarkably charitable towards his former wife, who despite having set up home with another man, has taken his house, car, and a large chunk of his pension away from him.

But the other star of the book is the villa’s black labrador, Oscar, who befriends Dan by knocking him into the pool and then remains by his side throughout the novel helping with the investigation.

The author, T A Williams, is the author of many romance novels set in Tuscany, and Murder in Tuscany, published in 2022 by Boldwood Books Limited, is a promising start to his crime series.

Dan, as a retired Detective Chief Inspector, is well set up to help the local police and investigate more intriguing cases, and I look forward to reading his adventures in the next book, Murder in Chianti.

Order your copy of Murder in Tuscany, by T A Williams

Home

The Treasure Hunt by Andrea Camilleri

A disturbing puzzle is solved amid chaos and comedy

The Treasure Hunt is the 16th
in the Montalbano series

The story begins with Gregorio and Caterina, two elderly people who are brother and sister, reported to be shooting at the people in the piazza below their apartment to ‘punish them for their sins’.

News cameras later film Inspector Montalbano, with his gun in hand, scaling the building to try to capture the deranged pair. Afterwards, when order has been restored, he is hailed as a hero by everyone.

But a few days later, he starts to receive messages in bad verse from an anonymous person challenging him to take part in a treasure hunt.

While trying to work out who is sending the sinister poems, Montalbano also has to lead his men in a hunt to find a beautiful young woman who has been reported missing by her distraught father.

The reader joins Montalbano on the trail through the sunny Sicilian streets, where he meets some eccentric characters and constantly finds himself in hilarious situations.

And from the descriptions of dishes on the menu at Enzo’s trattoria, or the meals cooked by the Inspector’s housekeeper, Adelina, eaten on his terrace overlooking the beach, you can almost smell the Sicilian food that the inspector enjoys along the way.

But all the time the clock is ticking, as the officers race to find the missing woman before she comes to any harm, and the Inspector becomes concerned about the increasingly sinister clues for the treasure hunt that he keeps receiving.

Camilleri died in 2019. He is
buried in Rome's Non-Catholic
cemetery in Testaccio

Montalbano also has to put up with irate phone calls from his long-distance girlfriend, Livia, who is jealous of his friendship with a beautiful Swedish woman, Ingrid.

On top of this, there is interference from his boss, the Commissioner, and the mangled speech of his officer, Catarella, when he relays telephone messages to the Inspector, to contend with.

Only at the end of the book, when Montalbano has put himself at great risk to solve the disappearance of the young woman, does everything  fall into place and the shooting spree carried out by the elderly brother and sister finally make any sense.

Another great trip to Sicily in the company of Montalbano.

Buy TheTreasure Hunt by Andrea Camilleri

Home