Commissario Brunetti is burnt out and if he does not take a break and relax, either his health will be permanently damaged or he will explode and permanently damage is career. Fortunately a distant relative has a villa on an island not far from Venice where Brunetti can go to decompress. Yet even here death follows, and Brunetti's investigative skills are needed.

This is the twenty-sixth book in the series and, like its fellows, it is excellent.

I received a review copy of "Earthly Remains: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery" by Donna Leon (Grove Atlantic) through NetGalley.com.

First Sentence: After an exchange of courtesies, the session had gone on for another half-hour, and Brunetti was beginning to feel the strain of it.

After acting rashly in order to save a young policeman, Brunetti takes some time off and goes away to a island villa owned by a wealthy relative. There he becomes reacquainted with Davide Casati with whom Brunetti spends his days rowing. After a sudden, violent storm, Casati has gone missing. A search is begun and Brunetti is there when Casati’s body is found. But was it an accident? It’s time for Brunetti to get back to work.

Even is one hasn’t read previous books in the series, one will acquire an immediate respect and affection for him, for his wife Paola, from the very opening. It is lovely to have a protagonist with a solid home life who loves his wife—“ʿStay another weekʾ Paola said, laughing. …ʽWill I still recognize you?ʾ ʿIt would break my heart if you didn’t,’ he said, unaware until he said it how true it was.”

Leon is such an intelligent writer and one who assumes the same of her readers, which is lovely, or at least a desire by her readers to do research and learn. Yet she also has a sense of humor—“He couldn’t jump up and pretend to be Lazarus…” …”He was just coming to the end of the fawning dedication to the Emperor Vespasian, embarrassed that a writer he so admired could be such a lickspittle…”

A strong sense of place can so enhance a reader’s experience. We see what Brunetti sees, hears, and smells. And for anyone who has rowed a watercraft, one can almost feel the flow of water beneath the boat, and the rhythm of the oars. One may also chuckle at the comparison—“Brunetti…untied the boat,…and bent again to his oar, wondering if this was what it was like to be a galley slave. But slaves had no leather gloves and certainly did not stop for coffee in the afternoon.”

The story contains a very relevant and timely ecological focus on the condition of bees and the damage man hath wrought on our environment. But there is also a small element of hope. Leon does make on think, and question, on several different levels and topics, including a sad commentary on the state of the economy in Venice.

Murders, and their resolutions, are often intended to be shocking. So are the revelations here. All the more so as it is based on the reality of what is happening in this country, and the world, today.

“Earthly Remains” is a story of awareness and choices; guilt and conscience, and the awareness of cause and effect; the consequences of one’s behavior. But still, in the end, it is a mystery, and a fine one.

EARTHLY REMAINS (Pol Proc-Comm. Guido Brunetti-Venice-Contemp) – VG+
Leon, Donna – 26th in series
Grove Atlantic – April 2017

Fans of the Brunetti series will not be disappointed in this latest addition .It features all the characters that make the books so enjoyable,with all the insights into life in Venice that we have come to expect.As always ,there is a thought provoking theme to the novel.I enjoyed it very much.

I always look forward to a new Brunetti book, but I was somewhat disappointed in this one. Brunetti flies solo for the majority of this novel, set on an island outside of Venice @ a unused villa owned by his wife's family member.
Brunetti's sabbatical - complete with the requisite dead body & subsequent investigation - is a trip through the Venice's environmental concerns and felt too preachy at times.
The conclusion was satisfying & somewhat unexpected and sets up the next book in the series. Hopefully, the next one will take place back in the city proper with the secondary characters - family & co-workers - whose presence & interaction with Brunetti - was missed in this book.

Commissario Brunetti has a very unusual reaction during an interrogation and realizes that he needs a break from his stressful position at Questora. He accepts an opportunity to rest at a relatives villa on the laguna and spread the days rowing - not thinking not feeling.

When the man that he was rowing with turns up dead, Guido realizes that he must have answers to questions that he had failed to ask this man when he was alive.

I love all the book where Guido Brunetti is the central character trying to prevent or correct a social wrong. This was no different in bringing me a magnificent story.

While interrogating a suspect, one of Commissario Brunetti’s colleagues is on the verge of attacking the interviewee. Brunetti has to interfere and fakes a heart attack. He finds himself in hospital before he can explain what has happened. Albeit the doctor does not find any sign of heart attack, she nevertheless advocates for some time off for the commissario to recover from work. One of Paola’s aunts happens to possess a villa in Sant’Erasmo, one of the largest island in the laguna and so Brunetti sets out for some holidays without his family. He spends his days with the housekeeper Davide Casati with whom he likes to row through the laguna. Yet, after a stormy night, Casati does not return and to Brunetti’s sorrow, they find the elderly man drowned. Even though everything points at an accident, Brunetti knows that Casati has been preoccupied and wanted to tell him something he had been researching for months. So Brunetti starts to ask questions that were not meant to be asked.

Donna Leon’s 26th novel in the Brunetti series brings us again into Venice laguna with sympathetic Commissario Brunetti. What I like about these crime novels is the fact that they put the human being into the focus. We do not have the brutal, lurid murder cases, but everyday men and women who act in accordance with their beliefs and convictions and sometimes commit crimes without being thoroughly evil.

This novel is especially slow in pace and thus mirrors quite well the hot Italian summers. After a third of it, still everybody is alive and kicking and I already started to wonder if it could do without any murder at all. Well then of course we have a dead and some suspicion which actually leads to a case. Starting from only small points, the story extends in concentric circles linking the hints and in this way forming a complete picture of a convincing and logic series of events. The characters’ motivation of realistic and comprehensible. Yet, at the very end, Brunetti could surprise me a lot – even though his acted in quite an unexpected way, this was consistent with his personality.

All in all, the perfect crime novel for a hot afternoon.

I have read all of Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti books..
They constitute the most consistently well-written and intellectually interesting series in this genre.
They are carefully- crafted and engaging. The characters are believable and rounded. It has been a pleasure to follow the fortunes of Brunetti , his family and colleagues.
This novel is slightly different in that Guido is somewhat distanced from his usual milieu and some readers may be put-off. However,this allows one to concentrate more on Guido himself and this is a bonus.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an advance ebook copy of a wonderful book.

This book is very impressive to me for the pure and simple fact that I have never read any of the previous 25 outings for Brunetti and yet, I immediately got to grips with the character, his likes and dislikes, his love of his city and his family and many of the idiosyncrasies that I'm sure regular readers will know and love. This, the 26th offering, finds Brunetti having somewhat of an existential crisis and in need of time away from his job, he travels to the island of Sant Erasmo to rest. The novel proceeds at what I consider a gentle pace for a crime novel and this was also refreshing. There is no brutality, no race against the clock, just the story a police officer reconnecting with nature and investigating a death almost as an afterthought. While I can't say that its a particularly memorable story for me, I did love the character and setting and would relish reading more of Leon's novels about Brunetti in the future.

EARTHLY REMAINS: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery
Donna Leon
Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN
Hardcover
Mystery

It’s difficult to describe the work of Donna Leon in other than superlatives. Her series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti of Venice, Italy is a fine series --- one of the finest (see what I mean) in the mystery, or indeed, any genre --- is an annual blessing, one which contains a puzzle at the core but is at heart character driven by Brunetti and a fine cast consisting of his family and co-workers who are instantly memorable and unforgettable from book to book. Leon paints each story --- each sentence --- with a fine and careful brush; one never gets the sense of a story being dashed off or hurried. Still,it is a wonderful surprise to find that EARTHLY REMAINS, the twenty-sixth and latest installment in this quietly beloved canon, is at this late date the best of a wonderful lot.

EARTHLY REMAINS finds Brunetti taking a brief and unplanned vacation away from his job and interestingly enough from his family as well. The short-term sabbatical is occasioned by an incident at work where Brunetti intercedes on behalf of his junior officer during an interrogation, preventing the young man from doing something reactive and rash. One thing leads to another and a bit of medical leave is recommended for Brunetti. When Brunetti confesses to his wife, Paola, that he is feeling burned out from his job she recommends that he spend some time alone at her family’s villa on Sant’Erasmo, one of the islands that surround Venice. Brunetti on arrival is delighted to eventually learn that the caretaker of the property is Davide Casati, a longtime friend of Brunetti’s late father. The two men strike up a friendship of their own over their mutual interest in rowing; Brunetti quickly falls into a routine of boating around the many inlets with Casati and reading at night.

I have to stop here for just a moment and note that well nigh a third of EARTHLY REMAINS passes without a particular mystery arising. I quite frankly wouldn’t have cared if one had not throughout the course of the book. Leon’s character development and scene-setting is so strong and interesting that the story just moves right along without a bump or hitch. A mystery does arise, however, when Casati goes missing without explanation. Brunetti, leave notwithstanding, puts his investigator’s hat back on in order to determine the what, why, and wherefore behind his new friend’s disappearance and ultimate fate. He does so by following a bit of innuendo as well as a trail that leads into the past, which in turn reveals a secret shared among three men about a tragedy whose effect ripples forward into the present, resulting in guilt and subterfuge. Brunetti ultimately gets his answers, but the ending to EARTHLY REMAINS is hardly tied up neatly or happily. It’s yet another element that makes this book, and this series, so close to the real world.

Serious readers who are always looking for a new author or title are probably already familiar with Leon and Brunetti. There are few reading joys that equal cracking the binding of a new Leon novel and experiencing another meeting with Brunetti, his deep intellect, and occasional wry humor, delivered in a quick line or two of observation as a quiet aside. If you have not experienced this world, so exotic and yet so familiar, you can pick up literally any volume in the series and begin a comfortable entry into Brunetti’s Venice. EARTHLY REMAINS, however, would be a superlative place to start. Very strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2017, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

I’ve read or listened to a fair number of the Commissario Brunetti series, but I read them out of order. It’s a bit of bad luck that both this and the one I listened to before it both deal with pollution. Yes, it’s a topic Leon keeps coming back to, apparently a major issue in Venice, but usually it’s spread out a little than it was for me this time. I would have liked a different topic, but that’s more my fault than Leon’s.

I liked that Brunetti gets out of town for a while this time around. I enjoy the early part of the story where he’s relaxing and rowing; it’s different than we usually see him. I like the people in the smaller towns, their relationships. I enjoyed the bees and how much they meant to David Casati. I missed his family a bit, but I’m sure they’ll be in the next one.

The investigation was interesting, with it’s digging into the present and the past. I was a bit disappointed, which I feel like I said about the last book of hers. I tend to want a little more resolution than she gives.

This is a great series and I enjoyed this installment. They don’t need to be read in order, however, if you’re just meeting Brunetti for the first time, I’d suggest starting with an earlier one in the series, one that’s set in Venice itself.

This is another very readable and enjoyable Brunetti novel, although perhaps not quite as involving as some others.

There comes a time in every long-running detective series when the protagonist takes a – usually enforced – holiday. Brunetti has reached that point here, and goes off to an island in the laguna for a couple of weeks rest. Needless to say, he eventually becomes embroiled in the investigation of a possibly suspicious death, which leads to the possibility of much larger-scale wrongdoing and corruption.

Donna Leon always gives us a classily undemanding read, and this is no exception. However, as so often with detective-on-holiday novels, removing Brunetti from his natural milieu in Venice with official corruption, his vain, idle and spineless boss and so on does diminish the story somewhat. We do get excellent descriptions of the life of the islands of the laguna and so on, and Paula is, thank heavens, still just a phone call and a few kilometres away, but Earthly Remains didn't quite have the hugely enjoyable sense of Brunetti in his Venetian element and among his family.

Nonetheless, this is a very enjoyable read. It may not be a Brunetti classic but you won't be disappointed.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

This series never fails! If you haven't read the Brunetti novels, don't be frightened off by the fact that this is #26- it's entirely enjoyable as a standalone although it will make you want to read more. Loved the fact that Brunetti was sent off to relax. HAH! That's not going to happen! Leon has found a new way to put him to work at what he does best, solving murders while keeping all the balls of his family and friends in the air. This was a terrific addition to the series, with more nuance added to the characters and the setting is, as always, entirely charming. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

Venice is never lovelier than when seen from the water. But hidden in their depths are dangerous secrets. Commissario Guido Brunetti decides he has had enough of the corruption and futility of policing Venice and conspires to take himself away from the Questura for a few weeks on a leave. He heads to a villa owned by his wife's aunt on Sant'Erasmo, one of the largest islands in the laguna. He plans to spend his days reading and rowing with Davide Casati, the caretaker. Never really off duty Brunetti goes into full Commissario mode when Casati goes missing in a fierce storm. What he finds are secrets from long ago that are a ticking time bomb for the waters around Venice. Another wonderful book by Donna Leon and the dedicated Commissario.

I have been waiting for this book! I could not put it down.

(Thank you Netgalley for an early reader copy in exchange for an unbiased review)

Commissario Brunetti takes 2 weeks off for stress leave (highly unusual!) and goes to a remote island for rowing and relaxation. While he's there, he encounters Davide Casata, a person from hi past, and with a past of his own. When Davide is found drowned Guido must decide if it's murder, suicide or accident. His quest for the truth leads him to delve into Davide's life in a most unexpected way. Earthly Remains is vintage Donna Leon, as much a psychological mystery as a murder mystery. It was so engrossing I finished it in a day! You will not be disappointed!

This is the 26th book in this series, I must do some serious reading to catch up. It is easily a stand-alone novel, and brings back memories of Venice but sad to realize the state of things there. Seriously? Murano glass is made in China? And I agree, the city did seem to be over crowded with tourists, and warnings to protect yourself from pickpockets must be heeded. Back to the story, this is just good old gumshoe work tracking down the details of past happenings, along with a glimpse at life in and around Venice. There’s no super advanced technical gadgets, none of the myriad of heroics often described in these type mysteries, i.e., the detective does not leap tall buildings or out race a bullet nor does he use any number of martial arts to defeat an entire gang of thugs. As stated, just good gumshoe detecting. A most enjoyable read especially for those who have been to Venice.

I loved this book - I think it is one of Ms. Leon's best. It was lovely to step away from the usual local of Venice and see the more distant islands. The book had a different flavor but was as engaging and intriguing as usual. It was as if a great cook introduced a new seasoning to an old favorite.

I requested this novel because Donna Leon is one of my mum’s favorite writers. She’s a crime novels addict and I remember her talking to me about this series a couple of times. Her love for the author made me curios and I jumped at the occasion to read the latest release, the 26th!!!! Installment in the Commissario Brunetti series. I was a bit worried that I will have some problems understanding the personal life of the main characters since I did not read the previous novels and I was partially right.

Donna Leon, the author of the series of novels that have as main character Guido Brunetti, a detective at the Police Headquarters in Venice, is an American of Irish and Spanish origins who’s lived in Venice for over 30 years. From the way she writes, we see that she is in love with the beauty and uniqueness of Venice and the nearby islands but also sees its darker side: environmental damage, pollution, crime, corruption. These latter issues are the subject of her newest novel.

Following an uncontrolled fit during an interrogation (a case of corruption in the high society of Venice) Brunetti realizes he needs a break and he gets nearly three weeks away from the office to recover. His wife Paula sends him to the villa of a rich aunt, on the secluded island Sant Erasmo, to relax and read. Here, he spent the days in the companionship of David Casati, the caretaker of the villa and an old friend of Brunetti' father. The two became friends and David helpes Brunetti to restart rowing, to rediscover the beauty of the lagoon and initiates him into the life of bees, which unfortunately, for some unknown reason, perished from the island. After a storm, David Casati disappears and Brunetti interrupts his vacation and starts his own investigation to discover the truth about the disappearance and, after the discovery of the corpse, about the death of David Casati.

About a third of the book covers the relationship between Brunetti and David Casati, the way they spend their time together in nature. Only later the conflict is triggered and the novel becomes a detective story.

I liked the book and the style in which it was written but the beginning was a bit boring. I discussed with my mum and she told me that her other novels are more action packed so I will probably read other Donna Leon books. In order to have a better reading experience, I should have started with the first books in the series to better understand Brunetti as a character, his spiritual conflicts, the other people from his life and circumstances that made him react like this at the beginning of the book. I would not recommend to start with this novel if you never read anything by Donna Leon before, it is more suitable for readers that already know and love these characters.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Have read all of Donna Leon books.. Starts out slowly but builds and builds momentum as it rolls along. Definitely in the top 25% of the series. Highly recommend to faithful!! April is just around the corner.