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Guido Brunetti, the protagonist of Donna Leon's brilliant series about crime in high and low places in Venice, Italy, is back in a smart thriller about a murdered street vendor, one of the illegal immigrants who sell fake fashion accessories outside the tourist mecca's high-priced boutiques while trying to stay one step ahead of the law. Someone had a reason for wanting the nameless African man dead, and the search for the killers and the men who sent them to Brunetti's beloved and beautifully evoked city shortly before Christmas leads the thoughtful, multifaceted and uxorious Commissario to the unfamiliar Venetian milieu where the vu cumpra live. In the cramped, airless room where the Senegalese vendors manage to find shelter, Guido discovers a fortune in so-called "conflict diamonds" hidden among the murdered man's meager belongings. But finding the diamonds' provenance and the killers who were seeking them proves to be an exercise in bureaucratic misdirection. Warned off the case by his boss in the name of "national security," Guido nonetheless persists with his investigation, in the course of which he discovers what--and who--really matters to him. Leon depicts the city she also clearly loves with such skill the reader can almost hear the watter lapping at the edges of the canals and smell the espresso beans roasting in the crisp cold winter air. A tour de force from an author whose reputation for skillful plotting, extraordinary descriptive powers, and complex characters has earned her a loyal base of fans; if you haven't discovered her work before this, Blood from a Stone will only whet your appetite for her extensive backlist of titles featuring Brunetti and his colleagues.

Attrapé lors du pique nique à Chalons en Champagne où nous avons une bonne journée.
Merci aux Chalonnais de nous avoir reçus.
Il partira avec moi à Berlin.

Bonne lecture !
Meet up avec Kirjakko

We had a mini-meeting with the French BC-TV-star katalobonga at Le Petit Chatelet and I got this book which she had thought of releasing in Berlin (if I understood anything from her previous journal). I've always read Donna Leons in Finnish, so I'll try the English version now. I've been to Venice once, unfortunately before I had "met" Donna Leon, so perhaps I have to go there again and trace Comissario Brunetti's footsteps.

Thank you, kirjakko for the "French BC-TV star" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are welcome, katalobonga. I make this journal entry to get the book back to my shelf (wondered a bit where it had dissappeared and found the culprit).

Today I went to an excursion from Paris to Le Mont-Saint-Michel and the bus trip took almost 10 hours, so there was ample time to read.
This book looks into the death of an African street salesman. I remember well from my one and only trip to Venice (so far) all those black people selling Prada, Gucci , Louis Vuitton etc. handbags on top of a sheet on the street. There were so many of them and the price was usually between 10-20€, so yes, many men were buying them for their wives who were at home. I think you as a buyer could be quite heavily fined if you bring pirate things into the country, but they either didn't know or care.
There was more to this murder, but I'm not going to spoil the plot for you. I don't think this was as good as many of Mrs. Leon's other books.

Left at the Helsinki Airport Book Swap Lounge on my way home from Paris.
Dear New Reader,
Please tell us how you found and liked the book. Having read it you can decide what you want to do with it - keep forever or re-release.
Enjoy!