home > mystery novel reviews > uniform justice

Uniform Justice

by Donna Leon

Here's a book for those intrepid souls who like realism over fantasy. This book ends with a less than satisfactory finish for those of us who use fiction to escape reality rather than be confronted by it (although at the same time we insist that the writer make everything in the narrative SEEM real!). I have no doubts that Italian politics are just as corrupt as our own - but hey - this is fiction, isn't it? Let the bad guys be foiled and justice prevail. In Uniform Justice, Donna Leon's excellent writing is marred by this one attribute - it's far too true to life.

I haven't had the pleasure to date of reading any of Donna Leon's other work, but her knowledge and intimacy with Italy and Venice in particular certainly stands out. Italy is one of my favorite countries, and Ms. Leon knows exactly how to envelop you in that atmosphere. Her insertions into the Uniform Justice text of Italian words and menus, plus the laid-back Italian habit of accomplishing most things, provides us with an environment which not only transports you to the scene, but reminds us that people are very much the same everywhere!

Uniform Justice begins at an Italian boy's military academy; a student there is found hanging in the lavatory. The dead student is the son of Dr. Moro, a former politician. Commissario Guido Brunetti, the primary character in this Donna Leon series, is called in to investigate what appears to be a teenage suicide. Something - intuition perhaps - tells Commissario Brunetti there is more to the case than meets the evidence of simple suicide, however. His suspicions are reinforced by the parents; especially his mother. But there's nothing to prove it was actually murder, and Commissario Brunetti must resort to his own wily tactics to convince his superior that the case cannot yet be closed.

Brunetti is even more involved in the case because his own son is the same age as the victim. So the Commissario begins to dig with the help of the crafty Signorina Ellettra, and discovers that when Dr. Moro was in Parliament, his impeccable behavior and honesty alienated those associated with him who had their hands in the public's pockets. His co-workers also took advantage of their high position to falsify various reports, which Doctor Moro uncovered. The net result was that the Doctor's wife was 'accidentally' shot in the leg, the Doctor himself left Parliament, and now his son has been murdered.

It doesn't take long for the Commissario to find out that the dead student had both voiced and fought for justice - and had made the grave error of creating an enemy of another student at the military academy. That student enemy happened to be the son of one of the individuals Dr. Moro maligned. Brunetti then finds himself up against a wall of consolidated conspiracy from those who hold power in the political and military fields. Slogging along while uncovering unsavory circumstances, but without any concrete evidence or proof, Commissario Brunetti eventually discovers who actually murdered Dr, Moro's son and why. Unfortunately, the perpetrator and his father meanwhile have manufactured a story as plausible as it is false - and since there's no evidence to the contrary, the novel ends there. They get away with it. In fiction, that's what bothers me.

Donna Leon is known for her intense interest in opera, and evidently all her books touch on aspects of that art - reason enough to enjoy her writing. Police procedurals seem not to be her thing as much as music, which accounts for the lack of much in that area. Ms. Leon also has a decided aversion to corruption in the justice system as well as politically elsewhere; however, Donna Leon perhaps needs to remember that fiction is read for enjoyment more than enlightenment - although the latter may certainly be included!

Alan Paul Curtis

back