Suffer the Little Children

SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN; Donna Leon; New York: Atlantic Monthly, 2007. 264 pgs.
Fiction

This latest book in Donna Leon's superb Venetian mystery series finds Commissario Guido Brunetti investigating an early morning raid of a pediatrician's home by the Carabinieri, to seize the couple's illegally adopted child. The doctor is seriously injured, and questions arise as to why such a brutal raid occurred. Short on conventional violence, Suffer the Little Children is long on the horrific damage we do to one another with self-righteous meddling. Venice, as always, is a beautiful, palpable presence in the story, not just backdrop, but a character herself. Commissario Brunetti is a delight as well, a loving husband and father, and a police officer of great compassion and a piercing intelligence.

LW