An unexpected pleasure. I chose this thriller, which was on the sale table, in large part because the action takes place in Venice. There is a map on the inside covers. I have loved Venice since I visited it in 1974 and I have read several popular mysteries that are based there. But I did not know much about Venice during WWII or shortly after. That is the time period of this novel.

Venice managed to come through undamaged. That is, the buildings did. The beautiful city attracted widow Grace Miller, who leased a home for several months. Perhaps she would stay, live there. Her son Adam, released from military service, comes to stay with her, and meets the man she is currently seeing, Gianni Maglione. Gianni is charming, well-mannered, and from an old Venetian family. But Adam does not like him.

Adam meets Claudia at a party. Claudia is Jewish and survived a camp. Her scars are more than physical, as she had been made to be essentially a sex slave to one of the Nazis running the camp. The two hit it off. But then there is an incident that pits Claudia against Gianni, and Adam calls on his military intelligence buddies to find out more. And then one fateful night everything changes.

The story really kept me in suspense. A different type of suspense than one might expect from a thriller. And it revealed a part of Venice - and Italy - that we may tend to gloss over in our daily lives. I suspect that Kanon's representation of the general feelings after the war are pretty nearly accurate. They make sense while they make one think. What does it mean when a country is occupied and its inhabitants become used to following orders of its occupiers? What happens after and how do the citizens feel and act?

Not what I'd call a "nice" story. But fascinating, absorbing, thought-provoking. ( )

Another solid outing from Kanon, who has yet to disappoint me. The Venice setting is so perfectly described throughout that I really feel as if my passport should have another entry stamped on it at this point. The plot and its resolution were terrific and the pacing was rarely off. Major and minor characters were all well developed and believable, and the only real nit I have about the whole package would involve the female lead, given that I felt sorry for her but I didn't feel a whole lot of sympathy for her by the end. But Kanon puts everyone through the wringer and no one comes out unscathed. And justice? Well, you could say that justice was a fluid thing in postwar Venice... ( )

Not the best Kanon, but ok for a doctor's office visit. A long one. He writes as though he knows Venice. And the Italians fascists. ( )

Lots and lots of dialog which could have been shortened. Interesting story, one I have not read before or even thought about. ( )

This is a case of the whole being more than the sum of the parts. The two main characters are frequently unbelievable to the point of being archetypes. The two main plot twists are so silly as to be near absurd. Anyone who had read enough crime novels will be pretty sure of the outline of the ending halfway through. However the writing and pace are SO good that you won't care. His sense of place is more than good enough for an Anglosphere reader [I did a lot of business in the region over several decades and can nitpick]. His sense of period will again suffice for those not really fluent on Italian politics and history. All in all it was extremely good fun to the point that I read it every moment I could get free till I finished it, then went back to immediately reread a few choice scenes. It is really a pity that this wasn't made into the Hollywood movie instead of his 'the Good German' as this one would be much easier to shoot. ( )