Unto Us a Son is Given
Unto Us a Son is Given by Donna Leon, published by Grove Atlantic in 2019, is the 28th installment in the Brunetti series. This edition, comprising 259 pages, continues to explore the complexities of human relationships through the lens of mystery and intrigue. The story begins with Guido Brunetti, a soulful detective, who is drawn into a web of familial and financial tensions surrounding an elderly man’s decision to adopt a much younger man as his son, raising questions about inheritance and morality.
As the narrative unfolds, Brunetti faces a series of unexpected events, including the sudden death of the elderly Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejada and the subsequent murder of a friend attending his memorial service. The investigation reveals long-hidden secrets that complicate the seemingly straightforward situation, forcing Brunetti to confront the darker aspects of human nature. This edition delves into themes of family dynamics and societal expectations, making it a significant addition to the mystery and detective genre.
Official synopsis Publisher
“Your situation is always ambiguous, isn’t it, Guido?”, his father-in-law, Count Orazio Falier, observes of Donna Leon’s soulful detective, Guido Brunetti, at the beginning of her superb 28th Brunetti novel, Unto Us A Son Is Given. “The world we live in makes that necessary,” Brunetti presciently replies. Count Falier was urging his Venetian son-in-law to investigate, and preferably intervene in, the seemingly innocent plan of the Count’s best friend, the elderly Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejada, to adopt a much younger man as his son. Under Italian inheritance laws this man would then be heir to Gonzalo’s entire fortune, a prospect Gonzalo’s friends find appalling. For his part, Brunetti wonders why the old man, a close family friend, can’t be allowed his pleasure in peace.
And yet, what seems innocent on the Venetian surface can cause tsunamis beneath. Gonzalo unexpectedly, and literally, drops dead on the street, and one of his friends just arrived in Venice for the memorial service, is strangled in her hotel room–having earlier sent Gonzalo an email saying “We are the only ones who know you cannot do this,” referring to the adoption. Now with an urgent case to solve, Brunetti reluctantly untangles the long-hidden mystery in Gonzalo’s life that ultimately led to murder–a resolution that brings him way more pain than satisfaction.
Once again, Donna Leon brilliantly plumbs the twists and turns of the human condition, reuniting us with some of crime fiction’s most memorable and enduring characters.
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