A Noble Radiance (Guido Brunetti, No 7)

by Donna Leon

Book Overview

Donna Leon has topped European bestseller lists for more than a decade with a series of mysteries featuring clever Commissario Guido Brunetti. Always ready to bend the rules to uncover the threads of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142003190
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.9" x 0.8" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Another Donna Leon Winner

If you haven't been to Venice, read Donna Leon and her so real to life characters. If you have, rejoice in your recollections. Always a good plot, always human foibles to deal with and always Venice! I'm surfe we saw Brunetti walking out of the Questara Hq.

Excellent mystery novel!

I came across this novel purely by accident, purchased it, and finished it within 4 hours. I could not put it down. This was a very well-written mystery and I am thrilled to know there are other books about Commissario Guido Brunetti. I obviously read this slightly out of order with her other Brunetti books, but this was written with no other knowledge of the Commissario needed. The book was self-contained and was a fine read. I have already ordered the rest of her books.

as pure as crime fiction gets

Donna Leon is wonderful. A Noble Radiance is the first book of hers that I have read, and I just know that she is wonderful. There is something so pure about this book. That's the only word i can think of to describe it. It is pure crime fiction, crime fiction with its heart in the plot, its pace in the movement of it, and its pleasure in the unravelling of it. Instead of giving us a deep and fascinating character study, Leon manages still to create a brilliant main character. He is developed subtly, gradually and fully, but he never becomes more important than the mystery. That is something lacking from some crime fiction today. The actual mystery takes a back-seat to things like setting, character, atmosphere. Here, the plot takes the front seat, but Leon still is able to present a brilliant backdrop, a wonderful atmosphere steeped in culture, and very fine characters. She uses seemingly large brushstrokes to draw them, and then fills in the details with tiny ones, imperceptible ones. She lays the clues masterfully, moves her plot along with brilliant skill. I can't really describe what a sublime pleasure it was to read this, and what joy I feel at having several more to read!A Noble Radiance is an absolutely lovely book. Venice is beautifully described, i want to visit the city. It is very rare to find a book so rich in culture. (Also, the idea that the police of Venice have enough money spare form their budget to buy new flowers for the offices every week is an exquisitely romantic one)I would reccomend Donna Leon to everyone. I can't believe i've been missing out for so long.

Leon: Another Glowing Thriller!

For Donna Leon's fans, Venice, the Most Serene Republic, is anything but serene! In yet another, the seventhsure-winner in her Commissario Guido Brunetti series, Leon once again masterminds a plot, setting, and unforgettable characters in a must-read book. In "A Noble Radiance," Leon shows what a master she is in establishing a grappling narrative hook, an absorbingplot filled with dangerous curves, pitfalls, and landmines, and a theme that at once is contemporary and yet for alltime. The novel begins with the discovery of a badly decomposed body in a lonely farmfield in the north of Italy, and,as her previous novels have it, Brunetti is given the case. Just as he suspects, the body belongs to a kidnapped young man, the noble heir to a considerable estate. It isBrunetti's responsibility to bring the news to the young man's family. Realist that he is, Brunetti is quick to find that,indeed, something is rotten in the land of the nobili, and from this point on, the reader is led--even carried--to theconclusion. The conclusion, however, appears a bit weak, albeit quite satisfying, I suppose, as Leon's endings usuallyhave a way of being far more thought- provoking. Still, the book is well-worth the time spent--unfortunately, the time goes all too fast when reading Leon; one has thetendency to wish they would keep on going, as they are, indeed, so mesmerizing. She has created such memorablecharacters, most notably Brunetti, who has such a noble philosophy. It is almost as if he is a salmon without a stream,as his ideals, his honesty, his concept of right and wrong seem at odds with today's sense of morality, whether it beItalian politics or not. Leon's books are never ones to shy away from social issues and concerns and it is almost as ifshe is Cassandra weeping outside the gates of Ilium, begging for anyone to believe her as she touches on responsibleconcerns: the environment (especially), corruption (both political and social), and immorality in various forms. UnlikeCassandra, Leon will be believed, one hopes. London's "Sunday Telegraph" describes "A Noble Radiance" as a book "with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can almostsmell it." Indeed, and the smells are not always so desirable. Leon herself (always one with the apt literary allusion)quotes Mozart at the beginning: "The nobility has honesty painted in its eyes." We find this quite appropriate for thenovel. She manages to evoke the landscape and atmosphere is a manner that lends strong support to her story line.Her growing flock of readers have come to expect this in each succeeding book. So far, she has not let them down.Like Caesar, her books have crossed the Rubicon with their social messages and readers should not let them go back! (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

A standout in a very good series

I have not listened to the audio version, but the book is very, very good. It is the seventh novel in the series of (currently) twelve starring the Venetian detective Guido Brunetti. As a mystery it works quite well on its own: a body unexpectedly discovered on an abandoned farm in the Dolomites is identified as the scion of a noble Venetian family whose kidnapping had never been solved, and Brunetti must struggle to determine the identities and motives of those responsible before they claim another life. What readers of the previous books in the series will particularly appreciate, however, is the subtle mystery Brunetti finds himself facing within his own family. The solutions to the Comissario's personal and professional challenges are ultimately intertwined in a conclusion which does not represent perfect justice (as is typical in Ms. Leon's novels) but is nevertheless extremely moving. Because Brunetti's relationships with his wife and growing children broaden and deepen over the course of the series, I would recommend that readers start with "Death at La Fenice" if possible, and enjoy the first six books in eager anticipation of this one.