A Refiner's Fire may not be the best choice for this novel's title, but the novel is a good choice to read as author Donna Leon goes all out to present interesting situations. I always enjoy the slice of Venice life she portrays, but this time the Questura is busier than usual...and some of the methods used are pretty questionable.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

Once again, Donna Leon has crafted an introspective, fascinating mystery for Guido Brunetti to to solve in modern-day Venice. it begins with a fight between two baby gangs--disillusioned male teens searching for something to connect to. Guido's colleague Claudia Griffoni ends up chaperoning one of the boys home late at night-- which opens a mass of trouble for her. Eventually Leon ties in an attack on one of Guido's colleagues, a deadly bombing in the Middle East, and the theft of guns and artifacts. A very moving entry, one that made me stop and contemplate as I neared the end.

I suppose this series featuring Donna Leon's much-loved detective Commissario Brunetti must go back a good thirty-five years now, and I've read most of the titles. While the characters and the setting have maintained their magic over the years, I regret to say that the narratives have grown thinner and thinner. Some of the recent ones have been damn near transparent. The narrative of A REFINER'S FIRE could hardly be described as muscular, but it is a considerable improvement over a number of recent titles in the series.

But, let's face it, nobody comes to Donna Leon's Brunetti series looking for compelling narratives. We return again and again because of the characters we love and the place they inhabit. It would be nice, I sometimes think, to have those characters and place better deployed, displayed again as they were in the early tiles in more absorbing contexts, but perhaps that's not strictly speaking necessary. Brunetti moves at his own pace, and so he should. He's very much not Jason Bourne, nor would we want him to be.