Donna Leon and Boris Akunin

What I am reading now

Generally I use this space to talk about TV detective mysteries. But I read them too, in between sci-fi and science stuff (like Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle). Recently I have been dipping into a few more Commissario Brunetti investigations by Donna Leon as well the first of the Erast Fandorin series by Boris Akunin. I’ve found both enjoyable.

I stumbled upon Donna Leon sometime ago. She has been writing one book per year in the series since 1992 and in 2024 released her 33rd. An American, Leon lived for some years in Venice but writes in English. Her Guido Brunetti is a commissario (detective superintendent) in the Italian State Police, stationed in Venice, the city of his birth. He loves his noble-born wife and two children and enjoys frequently described Italian-style meals. He has a jerk for a boss but some able assistants and is dogged, if not always entirely successful, in his investigations. Corruption of all sorts is a fairly constant motif in the stories leaving one with a somewhat negative view of Italy, deserved or not. (The Italians have been doing what they do for over two thousand years so have found ways.) The books are very easy reads and can be hard to put down. I read the first six in one gulp but then had to stop for a while. (They are a bit like Chinese food, tasty but leaving you unsure of what it was you ate.) Recently I went through the next six. Eventually I will pick them up again.

Last week, a friend gave me The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin, the first book in a series following the adventures of Erast Petrovich Fandorin, a fictional 19th Century Russian detective. Akunin is a Georgian-Russian born in 1956 in the USSR. He has been widely popular in Russia but apparently has been banned there since criticizing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. (Akunin now lives in London.) Fandorin is a young novice detective in this first book but goes from point to point in his unraveling of an international conspiracy through daring, luck and some learned skills. At some points I found myself laughing out loud but at others grimacing a bit at the sort of unhappy endings that one might not find in gentle English mysteries but definitely Russian. A fascinating and fun read. I’ve put the send on hold at the library.