I have really been enjoying this series, even though it isn't the type of mystery that you can follow along and try to solve yourself before the big "reveal." I enjoy this series because I like the peek into the life of Brunetti. Leon does a wonderful job drawing us into Brunetti's thoughts and feelings....she also provides this American a glimpse of the "real" Venice.

I will add that in addition to Brunetti's family, I'm also becoming quite fond of Signorina Elettra. (I wish I could find this whole series as I think something tragic may have happened to the Signorina in the book before this one.)

From the back:
A young cadet has been found hanged, a presumed suicide, in Venice's elite military academy. Brunetti's sorrow for the boy, so close in age to his own son, is rivaled only by his contempt for a community that is more concerned with protecting the reputation of the school, and its privileged students, than with finding the truth behind this tragedy.

*Update*
Nov. 1, 2006: This is one the way to fsr44.

Received today. Thank you! This is definitely going on the plane with me. Is there anything better than having Donna Leon along for a long flight? She never disappoints.
And I not only like Elettra, I want to BE her!
I'll pass this on after I finish. I know someday Leon will be as big in the US as some of the more well-known mystery writers, but I sort of like the fact that there is a small club of US Brunetti fans here on BC.

It's a good thing that the strength of Leon's Brunetti series is the vivid characterization, because sometimes the mystery itself is not all that gripping. So it is with this book. I enjoyed it for the usual reasons...I got to spend time in Venice during the span of those 300 pages, I walked the narrow streets with Guido Brunetti, a man so decent I can't help but crush on him even if he is fictional. I got to spend a bit of time with Guido's feisty, formidable wife Paola (I really can't decide if I'd rather be her or Signorina Elettra). And I was reminded again that in a corrupt system, it's impossible for perfect justice to be achieved. But the mystery itself was just so-so.

Still, I'm going to hand this off to a good friend who reads mysteries, in the hope that maybe I'll turn him onto Donna Leon.