So Shall You Reap is the 32nd book in Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti series. I am sad to say perhaps the 30th book should have been her last. I say that because I felt the 31st book was dialed in, and this one is only worse.
First, Vianello involves Brunetti with an incident at a gay pride parade in Treviso. Spoiler alert: this has absolutely nothing to do with the actual story. We spend the first six plus chapters on this and some follow-up afterward, but it really serves no point to the actual mystery. It feels more like the author wanted to get on her soapbox. Don’t’ get me wrong, I agree with her position, but it’s not necessary or it could have been the crux of the book. But this sideshow was unnecessary.
Second, we’re seven chapters and 15% in before we get to something related to our actual mystery, yet you wouldn’t know it because we go off on another tangent, regarding a stalking case. Another soapbox? And more on the gay pride incident.
Third, we are 32% into the book, and 13 chapters before we get to the actual dead body. Granted she planted some seeds before then, but they are few and far between.
Finally, while she writes so much extraneous story, she misses so much.
Donna Leon first started the Guido Brunetti series in 1992 with Death at La Fenice. For 31 years she churned these books out and while you can’t expect her to keep the characters to real time, if you are going to address real world events such as the pandemic, perhaps you should at least try to age your characters accordingly.
However, Guido’s children stopped aging decades ago, as did he. And all I keep thinking now, as I read these needless storylines that fill the pages, is wouldn’t it be nice to see these characters we love go through life events and how those events affect Guido? Why can’t his children get older? Graduate? Move out? Get married? Why can’t Guido and Paola become grandparents? And how sad it would be for Paola to lose her parents? And what impact would that have on our couple? Why can’t we fill in the mysteries with these stories?
But it seems like putting the effort into those story lines would require more effort than some of the canned ones we see now instead. To me, that is a missed opportunity, and it makes me sad for this series and these characters whom I adored. One star.