By its cover, Donna Leon

Each year there is a new addition in the series about commissario Guido Brunetti, police-inspector in Venice.

In this case he is asked to come to an academic library where it seems an American professor stole rare drawings and maps from old and valuable books. The investigation focuses on this man, who seems to be a professional thief. Only when another regular visitor of the library is found murdered in his house, Brunetti realizes his investigation needs to go into a completely different direction.

Donna Leon has been living in Venice for years now and this shows. Almost on every page she shows how well she knows the city, its inhabitants and their customs. You walk with Brunetti through the narrow calle’s, get irritated with tourists together and take the vaparetto with him.

There are no surprises in Donna Leon’s books. They all have the same ingredients.
Guido Brunetti is a calm and kind man, who is well read and has a philosophical nature. He investigates crime while he walks through his beloved city or goes for lunch. You read this books to sniff the atmosphere of Venice. And of course for Brunetti, because I genuinely like him. I was glad his wife Paola does not play a huge part in this book and his children almost not at all, because I find them quite irritating and horrible.

By its cover takes a long time to get going and I quite liked this. Yes, sometimes it is very, very slow, but I do not mind this, I like getting into the atmosphere of Venice.

The final solution on the other hand seemed a bit hurried, and I would have liked it when this would have been expanded a little bit more.

Despite that I thoroughly enjoyed By its cover and I spend a couple of very pleasant hours with this book, thinking I was in Venice.

Published in 2014