There is no rest possible for a policeman. Whether in fiction or in reality, you can always find out about a new case that disturbs your days off. In the case of Mortal Remains, Donna Leon places us in a fiction that transcends reality.
By medical prescription, the Commissioner Brunetti he leaves all pending cases and retires to a bucolic place (the island of San Erasmus, in Venice) where peace is breathed, with the distant murmur of the bee farm that Davide Casati, the caretaker of Brunetti's family home, maintains.
And this is where fiction catches up with reality (without ever surpassing it, only matching it, which can be even worse). The depletion of bees in the world, with its pollinating function, heralds serious damage to all humanity. Einstein already warned. The fact that there may be economic interests to kill these crucial insects seems perverse.
That is why for me Davide Casati is a personified metaphor. His death becomes an affront to the ecosystem. In this story, multinational companies interested in the extinction of bees are transformed into the toxic company suspected of the death under water of Davide Casati.
The quixotic idea of the person fighting the multinational to uncover the murder case is extremely interesting. And good old Donna knows how to set the necessary rhythm. The case of Davide becomes the case of the people against that economic interest that seeks to destabilize the ecosystem.
Brunetti is loaded with the weight of this great case that serves to raise awareness of very real aspects.
An entertaining and committed reading. Tension in the plot and hope in an ending that finds justice.
You can now buy Mortal Remains, the latest novel by Donna Leon, here: