Quietly in Their Sleep by Donna Leon: A review

Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venetian police is approached by a young woman who looks familiar but whom he can't quite place and who wants to tell him about what she fears has been happening at a nursing home where she recently worked. Only after she identifies herself does he realize that she was a nun who once cared for his mother at the nursing home where she is a patient. She had subsequently left that nursing home and worked at another, the one about which she is reporting to him. But then she grew disillusioned with life as a nun and left the Order to take up a secular life. She's no longer dressed in a nun's habit which is why he didn't recognize her.

What the young woman reports to Brunetti is her concern about the deaths of some of her former patients. Their deaths were somewhat unexpected and she believes they may have been helped along. All of the individuals were wealthy and she believes they may have been influenced to make their wills in favor of the nursing home.

Brunetti has nothing to go on except the woman's word but he remembers her as a great favorite of his mother because of her tender care and he decides to look into the situation to see what he can find out. In the midst of his inquiries, the woman who had come to him with the report is run down by a car and left for dead. She is in a coma and unable to tell the police what happened. Brunetti suspects that this was no accident and that it was related to his investigation. He determines to make a more intensive effort to find out what's going on and why someone might want to kill her.

This sixth entry in the Commissario Brunetti series tells a complicated story of abuses in the Catholic Church that seems as though it could be taken from today's headlines. It touches on the handling of priests who are accused of the sexual abuse of children and the cover-up of those abuses, greed and corruption, and looming over it all the shadowy organization of Opus Dei. The author deals with the somewhat incestuous relationship between the Italian government, the mafia, and the Church and with the resultant corruption which makes the lot of the honest policeman not a happy one. I feel the frustration of Brunetti as he tries to cut through the tangle of obstacles placed in his way to obstruct him from finding the embarrassing - and deadly - truth.

The Commissario and his family, as well as his associates with the police, are, as usual, attractive and sympathetic characters and the plot was an interesting one. I was happy enough with my reading experience here up until near the end and then it just all fell apart. The central mystery of the plot is never resolved; instead, the narrative just peters out into a most unfulfilling conclusion. It seemed as if the author simply lost interest and decided to end it in mid-stream. This certainly colored my opinion of the book and left me unsatisfied.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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