Book Review: Transient Desires

Reviewed by Michael Attard

As of my writing of this review, Donna Leon has written thirty books about an Italian detective from the city of Venice, known as Commissario Guido Brunetti. The book, entitled Transient Desires, is the 29th in the series and was published in 2021. The reader follows Brunetti along the waterways, over the bridges, and down the narrow alleys of this historical and cultural city as he tries to piece together the events of one night as they relate to a broader heinous crime. For those who know and love Venice, the author’s penchant for digressing to talk about, describe, and praise neighborhoods, churches, and squares, may be appealing, giving one the sense of actually being in Venice. For others, these episodes may be a distraction from the story.

The story begins with a boating accident. Two young women are seriously injured and taken to hospital. Suspicions are piqued by the manner in which the two women were abandoned on the hospital dock by two men. Why would someone, someone probably injured themselves, dump two women needing immediate medical care at the back door of a hospital and then quickly leave without notifying anyone?

The identity of the two men does not remain a mystery for long. Marcello and Filberto are brought in for questioning. The men, interviewed separately are reluctant to answer questions. What does become clear is that the boat they were in, hit a navigation marker that had come free from its moorings and was a floating hazard. With little else to go on, Brunetti decides to widen the scope of the investigation by inquiring into the business and ownership of the company for whom Marcello worked. The company and the boat that was in the accident were owned by Pietro Borgato, Marcello’s uncle.

“Brunetti convinces Filberto to trick Marcello by giving him a watch with a hidden police transmitter.”

It comes to light that Borgato is suspected of smuggling, and this would explain why he had such powerful boats. The large motors would be required for journeying well off shore into the Adriatic Sea. So, if the uncle is a smuggler, this implicitly incriminates his nephew Marcello. By this point I was questioning the author’s mystery writing ability. A mystery is an unknown until the final clue in a lengthy series of evidence pulls the cover from the concealed secret.

With regard to Borgato being a smuggler, this fact is simply revealed. There is no “aha!” moment. Likewise, earlier, when the two men were unknown, their identity was learned by police looking at video tapes. This struck me as making things just a little too easy for a mystery novel. A third example of questionable mystery writing occurs when Brunetti’s female partner, Griffoni, states about another police officer, “He is a liar, and not to be trusted.” But then a few phone calls are made, and Griffoni retracts her statements. The mystery of her suspicion is dismissed as a mistake. Why mention it. It did nothing to move the story along.

The story does have its suspenseful moments. Filberto tells Brunetti that Marcello “is afraid someone’s going to hurt him.” By now, the reader does have sympathy for Marcello, yet there is no mystery as to where the danger would come from. Filberto tells us clearly, “His uncle’s been violent with him in the past.”

Eventually, Brunetti meets and tells Borgato that his boat was seen off the coast two months earlier and wants to know what it was doing. Borgato claims that it had been across the sea for special repairs. Brunetti knows that the story is most likely bogus. However, I as a reader, wonder why Brunetti never asked to see a receipt for this repair work.

Shortly thereafter, police suspicions about the nature of Borgato’s smuggling become stronger. With Marcello so fearful of his uncle, Brunetti convinces Filberto to trick Marcello by giving him a watch with a hidden police transmitter. And in the end, Brunetti and his forces capture the bad uncle.

I was disappointed in the book. I enjoyed the read and the conversation of the characters, but the plot moved along a series of predictable points. There was no great mystery uncovered by a brilliant detective who knew where to look and how to see clues that no one else could decipher. However, the title, ‘Transient Desires,’ is a mystery to me.

Cover Photo: Author Donna Leon. (Michael Attard)