Reviews for Unto us a son is given

Publishers Weekly
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Italy's inheritance laws figure prominently in bestseller Leon's sobering 28th Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery (after 2018's The Temptation of Forgiveness). The Venetian policeman is asked by his father-in-law, Count Orazio Falier, to check out Attilio Circetti, Marchese di Torrebardo. The count's best friend, Gonzalo RodrA-guez de Tejeda, proposes to adopt Circetti and make him the heir of Gonzalo's considerable estate. As little is known about the prospective adoptee, and Gonzalo's wealthy siblings are alarmed by their aged relative's intention, the count suspects that his friend may be subject to other forces besides affection. Though Brunetti's respect for both the charming Gonzalo and his wise father-in-law places him in an awkward position, he agrees to investigate. When Gonzalo dies, followed swiftly by the murder of one of his oldest friends, it seems clear to Brunetti that Gonzalo's plans have set a nefarious plot in motion. Leon provides a sad reflection on the devastating impact of selfish desires on innumerable lives. Agent: Susanne Bauknecht, Diogenes Verlag (Switzerland). (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Library Journal
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Each year brings the delight of a new -Commissario Guido Brunetti novel, and this 28th book (after The Temptation of Forgiveness) featuring the ever-reflective Venetian detective does not disappoint. While the title suggests a Christmas motif, the theme could hardly be further from holiday festivity. Rather, Leon explores matters of human vanity and frailty. Brunetti's powerful father-in-law, Count Falier, requests that Brunetti intervene in the affairs of Gonzalo, an old family friend, in order to prevent irrevocable folly. The elderly and openly gay Gonzalo has set about adopting the attractive, much younger Pucetti, so that Pucetti can inherit his wealth. It is clear to the Count that Gonzalo has been duped into loving Pucetti, who fails to reciprocate. As always, the skillful Leon weaves deft plot threads culminating in the inevitable exposure of Pucetti as a callous gold digger. Along the way, murder and perfidy abound, providing Brunetti with numerous investigative challenges. Ultimately, Brunetti muses about the profound nature of family ties and the danger of family secrets, inviting readers to do likewise. VERDICT Ideal for aficionados of Louise -Penny's Kingdom of the Blind. [See Prepub Alert, 10/1/18.]-Lynne Maxwell, West Virginia Univ. Coll. of Law Lib., Morgantown © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Once again, Leon transforms what might have been a straightforward mystery into something much richer and more resonant in this case, a meditation on love, loss, family, and prejudice. When Venice police commissario Guido Brunetti is asked by his father-in-law to investigate the young man whom a close family friend, 85-year-old Gonzalo Rodriguez de Tejada, plans to legally adopt and thus, according to Italian law, make the sole heir to Gonzalo's considerable wealth Brunetti is taken aback. What business is it of his or anyone's to interfere with Gonzalo's plans? And, yet, there are concerns that Gonzalo, who is gay, is being taken advantage of by the younger man, with whom Gonzalo appears smitten. Would Gonzalo's friends and family make the same assumptions if Gonzalo were heterosexual, Brunetti wonders, prompting him to doubt his own assumed freedom from prejudice. When Gonzalo dies suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, and his oldest friend, in Venice to organize a memorial, is murdered shortly thereafter, Brunetti is forced to investigate the crime, knowing that even finding the killer can never lessen the human tragedy that stands behind it. Many crime novels place domestic story lines alongside crime plots, but Leon masterfully blends the two, enhancing our understanding of both. It is in Brunetti's conversations with his wife and children, and in his musings on his reading (in this case, Euripides' The Trojan Women) that we come to feel the full force of how preconceived notions about gender and sexuality can erode even the seemingly strongest of relationships. Far more than whodunit, the real subject of this novel (and Leon's work in general) is what we all do to one another. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Like Louise Penny, Leon has cultivated an utterly devoted audience, ever anxious to get to know more about her characters.--Bill Ott Copyright 2018 Booklist


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

What does a father owe his sonand what do sons owe their fathers? Venice's most thoughtful detective, Commissario Guido Brunetti, has occasion to ponder these questions in several forms during his latest outing.Surprisingly, Brunetti's own son, Raffi, doesn't play a large role, though we're treated to the usual Brunetti family conversations over delicious home-cooked lunches. The story begins with Brunetti's father-in-law, Conte Falier, asking him to look into something: There's gossip going around that the Conte's best friend, retired art dealer Gonzalo Rodrguez de Tejada, is planning to adopt his lover, Attilio Circetti, a much younger man, since that would be the only way Italy's inheritance laws would allow him to pass his entire estate to Attilio when he dies. The Conte is much too discreet to say it in so many words, but he wants to make sure his friend isn't being scammed. Brunetti doesn't want to get involved, but he finds himself moved when his father-in-law regretfully says, "I've just asked someone I love to spy on someone else I love." You can almost hear the song "Do You Love Me?" from Fiddler on the Roof playing in the background as Brunetti ponders the sentiment he's never heard from the Conte before. How can he say no after that? A few days later, another request: Brunetti's boss, Vice-Questore Patta, has a story about how his wife was insulted by an 8-year-old boy who lives in their building. He wants Brunetti to find out if there's "something wrong with the boy," and if not, to look into the parents' backgrounds. If the boy does have "real problems," he says, he doesn't "want to cause them more trouble." Could Patta be more sensitive than he always seemed? Eventually, of course, there are deathsone natural, one notbut as usual the mystery takes a back seat to Leon's (The Temptation of Forgiveness, 2018, etc.) beautiful writing and the pleasure of spending time with Brunetti and company.Leon says Venetians are "accustomed to swimming in the swirling froth of information and misinformation that flowed through so much of daily life," and readers can trust her to guide them safely to dry land. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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