What I Really Think

Maybe she has run out of story lines and fresh descriptions after 20 books. I liked the early books better, particularly Death at La Fenice and Aqua Alta featuring Flavia (the soprano) and Brett.

I keep buying these as they are published and then stack them up for that "one day" when I'll get through them. I think there's 4-5 in that stack now. The repetition gets a little old.

So Stephanie Plum - there's only so many cars that can be blown up while they're in her possession and it was a minimum amount in the last book. She had more hanky panky with both Ranger and Morelli, but if I was either of these two men, I'd have moved on along ago.

Kim, I just read this a few weeks ago and came away with the same conclusions.

Leon always has a few red herrings to distract us, but this time things felt sloppy, just patched together. The old couple from the hospital seemed shoe-horned in, like an after-thought.

Maybe she needs to shake the characters up more -- let Brunetti read something light instead of the classics all the time; have his mental map of Venice falter and he gets lost. Show a few flaws.

Chris, I may return to Stephanie Plum in anticipation of the movie release though.

Sandra, I like your ideas. Or perhaps something happen with/to one of Brunetti's kids/wife. The forgetting his mental map could have many repercussions given what happened to his mother. It's all so formulaic now, shaking up their lives would be painful but good.