Comments on: About the Blogger http://awomanofmystery.wordpress.com Just another WordPress.com weblog Sat, 15 Mar 2008 06:49:54 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Alice Schlegel http://awomanofmystery.wordpress.com/about/#comment-202 Alice Schlegel Sat, 15 Mar 2008 06:49:54 +0000 #comment-202 I love the mystery novels, set in Venice, by Donna Leon. Commissario Brunetti delves into the seamy side of this lovely city, his solace (and sometimes irritant) being his lively wife, an English instructor at the local university, and his two children. To keep up with my German, I like to read them in German translation, as they are so well written as to keep me going even when I have to resort to a dictionary as I read. Speaking of novels set in Italy, Christobel Kent's "A Party in San Niccolo," set in Florence, really captures the setting very well. It also deals with a dark side of Italian life, the importation of prostitutes from Africa and other places. I saw much evidence of this on the road from Siena to Grosetto (described in the opening scene), where the women--many of them just girls--stand and wait for passing cars to stop. A well written novel, it is really worth a look. I love the mystery novels, set in Venice, by Donna Leon. Commissario Brunetti delves into the seamy side of this lovely city, his solace (and sometimes irritant) being his lively wife, an English instructor at the local university, and his two children. To keep up with my German, I like to read them in German translation, as they are so well written as to keep me going even when I have to resort to a dictionary as I read.

Speaking of novels set in Italy, Christobel Kent’s “A Party in San Niccolo,” set in Florence, really captures the setting very well. It also deals with a dark side of Italian life, the importation of prostitutes from Africa and other places. I saw much evidence of this on the road from Siena to Grosetto (described in the opening scene), where the women–many of them just girls–stand and wait for passing cars to stop. A well written novel, it is really worth a look.

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