The Jewels of Paradise by Donna LeonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
It is said that Agatha Christie tired of Poirot, and that Conan Doyle wanted, after a time, to kill off Sherlock Holmes. I cannot imagine what induced Donna Leon to write this long winded and meandering novel, The Jewels of Paradise, except perhaps boredom with her highly successful series featuring Venetian detective, Guido Brunetti.
Let me say at the onset that Leon is incapable of writing anything but highly literate, beautifully thought-out prose. That is as true of The Jewels of Paradise as of any other of her previous many books. But a book about a musicologist whose special field is little known composers of Baroque opera? I’m a musician and an opera lover of many years, but even I had trouble caring what happened in this book about said musicologist’s investigation into the life and work of a composer long, for good reason, forgotten.
Ms. Leon seems to have used this book, The Jewels of Paradise, principally as a soap box from which once again to attack her favourite nemeses, the Church and the State. She often takes pot shots at Italy’s institutions through her characters in the Brunetti series, which I applaud when such shots have relevance to the plot. But her opinions have never appeared to be the sole raison-d’être in any of her previous works.
Not that I don’t enjoy her remarks. I do. I enjoyed her cutting comments about politics and religion and food and opera audiences who cheer wildly at bad performances. But this is not sufficient substance for a book. I cannot in good faith give this book less than three stars, because Leon is a brilliant writer who could probably create some interest even in a rewrite of the phone book. But I expect more from her. That’s what happens when an author places the bar so high.
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It’s a confusing and difficult time for Sayuri, especially when dangerous accidents happen to her father and herself – or are they accidents?
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Abigail's Christmas is a holiday story about Abigail who goes looking for a tree on Christmas Eve, and ends up with the man of her dreams in a sleigh in the Rockies --- with a wedding in the offing! Is it real? Is she dreaming? Or is it just Christmas magic?
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