The Golden Egg

The Golden Egg – Donna Leon

Commissario Guido Brunetti is used to murders that make headlines. This time the death that troubles him is of someone almost nobody noticed.

At dinner one evening, Brunetti’s wife, Paola, mentions a quiet, deaf man who helped out at the dry cleaner’s near their home and who has just died of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills. Paola cannot accept that his death should pass without anyone asking questions, and she persuades her husband to look into it. What Brunetti discovers is deeply unsettling: there seems to be no official record that the man ever existed. No birth certificate, no school records, no identity card, no medical history. His mother and the neighbors are reluctant to talk, and the more Brunetti and his colleague Inspector Vianello probe, the more closed doors they find.

As the investigation unfolds against the backdrop of Venice’s canals, palazzi and close-knit neighborhoods, Brunetti is drawn into questions of family secrets, wealth, power and the invisible people a city can choose not to see. As always, the resourceful Signorina Elettra, with her talent for finding information in unlikely places, proves an invaluable ally.

Thoughtful, humane and quietly suspenseful, The Golden Egg is the twenty-second Commissario Brunetti novel and shows Donna Leon at her most compassionate.

With the rich Venetian atmosphere, the lively family dinners and the moral complexity her readers love, The Golden Egg is a rewarding read for longtime fans and an excellent introduction for newcomers to the series.