Ambition, Anger, and Greed in Murano's Glassmaking Industry - Rated 
Since I started reading this series, I've been waiting with much interest for a mystery based on artistic glass making on Murano. Venice is well known for its glass, even if many pieces are now made in Asia and only sold in Venice or on Murano.
I remember like it was yesterday visiting Venice for the first time and being told that a glass maker would send a boat to take me to Murano so I could look over the glass. I liked riding around in the fast boats so this was an easy deal.
We headed out with a great flourish. Once there, we were treated like royalty and watched an artisan making objets d'art from molten glass. Inside the store, we were assured that many good values were available. I was especially impressed by the sculptures based on Picasso's style.
We bought a few items and were sent back by vaporetto. I guess we didn't spend enough to get a fast ride back. But it was fun!
Donna Leon portrays a darker view of Murano despite setting her story on leisurely spring days when everyone wants to play hooky from work. As the book opens, we find that an engineer concerned about the environment has married the daughter of a Murano glass maker who has a great desire to harm his son-in-law rather than let him near the family business. To help out the engineer, Marco Ribetti, who is a friend of Vianello, and Ribetti's wife, Commissario Guido Brunetti does a little informal investigating to see if there is a chance of real danger to Ribetti.
In the process of learning more about the angry father-in-law, Brunetti meets a very upset night watchman who has been made crazy from grief due to the slow development of his twin daughter. Everything seems fine until the night watchman turns up dead . . . having been roasted overnight next to a raging glass furnace he was supposed to tend.
Everyone is satisfied it's an accident, except Brunetti, who investigates on his own.
For those who like to find an intriguing murder in the first chapter and a steady progress towards finding out who did it, Through a Glass Darkly will be frustrating. This book is more about being a Venetian than it is a murder mystery.
If you've been reading this series for sometime, you know that Venetians are very fond of money and distrustful of their government. They even speak a dialect of their own with one another rather than deign to speak Italian.
Donna Leon wants to make the point that even if you are surrounded by corruption and incompetence, there are some forms of corruption and incompetence that are more desirable than others. She is probing the gray areas that are mostly black. I thought it was pretty well done if you have read at least five of the earlier novels in the series.
But what made the book come up above average for me was one of her best endings. I won't say more but be sure to stick with the book so you have a chance to see how she resolves this story.
If you want a straight murder mystery, I suggest you pick another book.
Not the best - but still far ahead - Rated
I never leave reviews of books, but feel Donna Leon deserves a break.
The book - whilst not being the best in the series is still a stand up effort and an enjoying read. All what you have come to expect of leon - "sunlight dappling the canal", "corruption at highest levels" and a thoughroly enjoying read (including the Commissario's lunch) are all there in the text as you would expect. So, lets face it - reccommended.
The series - I read some of the reviews and think...if you are going to buy this you are not going to expect some Dickensian or Mervin Peake esq opus. This is entertainment and it continues to be entertaining, so if you haven't got into this stream of literature yet - is high time. Let it be what it is, an entertaining read and leave it be at that. Donna Leone does not pretend to be aspiring to a poet laureate, but what it does deliver is quality "escapism" and an invocation of life - (that may be idealised) but none the less - is a life that many would trade for mundane existences, in an age when mundane has become the norm.
So I say to Donna Leone - keep writing and I will keep reading
Has done better - Rated 
I agree with one of the other reviewers -- slight plot, weak characterisation. Very good _elements_: but the first bit could be cut back with advantage to the flow of the plot, & much, much more could be made of the interconnexions between Patta, his 'mob', & Fasano & his lot; indeed, of all the developments in the vaery last part of the book. This is where the old Donna Leon really shows up.
Also are the environmental regulators in Venice sea-green incorruptibles? Surely it would be necessary to show some pre-existing antagonism against Fasano? -- And, contra another reviewer, it _is_ clear what happens ultimately to the villain...
Leon's sails to another top-notch thriller! - Rated 
Sometimes, it's best not to work "by the books." Thus, with spring fever permeating the Pearl of the Adriatic, Commissario Guido Brunetti and team begin an investigative adventure on their own, or at least one not officially sanctioned.
In Donna Leon's latest Brunetti novel ("Through a Glass Darkly"), we find the Commissario once again keeping his eyes peeled for Venetian crimes, especially of corruption, social injustice, and, of course, murder.
His assistant Vianello introduces Brunetti to a friend who's just been arrested for protesting on the island of Murano against environmental pollution. It's a simple matter and the friend Marco is soon released; however, this sets the whole story in motion: a story of corruption and, yes, murder. It's not until the murder, of course, that the police become officially involved.
Marco's father-in-law, who clearly hates Marco, is an owner of one of Murano's famous glass factories. The enmity lies, perhaps, in the fact that Marco is an environmental engineer and is clearly against unlawful pollution of the laguna. The rabid, aging father-in-law is a bully who's clearly out of control, or as Vianello observes he "a choleric man."
Complications arise and Leon is up to her usual level of brilliance in handling first rate police procedurals. An employee of the glass factory is found dead and, as Brunetti suspects, it's a suspicious death. The employee has been most vocal about the hazards of the factory, environmentally, and blames his daughter's tragic illness on the pollution.
Painstakingly, even cleverly, Brunetti and his team at the Questura bring the case to a close and once again Leon's literary magic prevails. Aside from her general plot outlines, Leon's greatest strength seems to lie in her ability to provide great depth to her characters, especially Brunetti, a police officer at once intrepid and all the time human, a man in a profession where integrity is not always a given. Each of the Leon episodes in this series provides additional depth to him and his family. And Leon`s pointed observations of the city and how it's run ("The matter lapsed, merging into the stream of gossip that flowed through Venice, much of it no cleaner than the water that flowed in the canals.") makes one wonder if the Italians actually read her books. Still, it's clear that she loves her overseas home (who wouldn't?) but, a bit like Cassandra outside the gates of Troy, her cries of corruption and incompetence seem largely to go unheeded!
In this 15th episode, we find that the author keeps the series open, and we can only hope she'll pick up the pace. Will it really be another year before her next Brunetti novel? (Billyjhobbs@suddenlink.net)
Forgot the plot - Rated
I thoroughly enjoyed this, as I have almost all of the Brunetti series. It is not the best of the novels, and it's true that the plot is weak, and the characterisation is not as keen as it usually is in Ms Leon's novels.
It doesn't matter. You read the Brunetti books for the feel of Venice, and for the masterful way in which apparently trivial details, such as the menu for lunch,or the tone of Paola's voice assume such importance in the life of our hero.
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