This book is much better written than Donna Leon’s previous “Suffer the Little Children”, which just seems sloppy and not up to her usual standard. But despite the excellent writing, this book is highly flawed.

There is a theme in every Commissario Brunetti book, ranging from the Italian military and the Venice Opera to the glass-blowing industry and the plight of illegal immigrants and homosexuals in Italy. But where in every previous book Commissario Brunetti, his wife and the sympathetic characters, and by extension Donna Leon, share compassionate liberal values towards oppressed minorities, like illegal immigrants, this book perpetuates every cliche about Europe’s most oppressed minority, the Roma.

In previous books Brunetti has referred to the Roma by the old derogatory name “Gypsies”. Not only does that continue in this book, the few times it is pointed out that there is a less racist name, the name Leon offers is “Rom”, which is also derogatory. And Brunetti, and the other normally sympathetic characters, dismiss “Rom” as another exercise in political correctness, and continue to use the word “Gypsy”.

This story includes every cliche about thieving gypsies who want to live in caravans, refuse to work, and force their children to steal or into prostitution. Only two characters are sympathetic to the Roma. One is a social worker who is not only depicted as unfriendly, she also has to be ugly, as if her appearance reflects her inner faults. The other is a doctor. What he has to say about the persecution of the Roma is completely correct, but you get the feeling Brunetti just wants the guy to get off the phone and out of his life.

Considering the support for the oppressed in all of the previous books, it is almost as if this book is actually a story from the point of view of the evil racist Lieutenant Scarpa, and everywhere it says Brunetti, Scarpa’s name should appear instead.

Maybe the Roma in Italy are different from the oppressed Roma everywhere else in Europe. In light of the proposal by the right wing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that every Roma in Italy be fingerprinted, a proposal met by uniform protests from the international community, perhaps this book accurately reflects racist attitudes in Italy today.

But I just don’t think Guido Brunetti, and certainly not his wife Paola, have suddenly adopted the values of the anti-immigrant Lega Nord. I kept waiting for something to happen for Brunetti to realize that he had it all wrong. Unfortunately it never did.

This otherwise well-written book is seriously flawed, and a great disappointment.