Heinemann £15.99 pp276

In Blood from a Stone, Donna Leon’s 14th Commissario Brunetti novel, the thoughtful and charming detective is on top form. Once again he strolls lovingly through Venice, while villains (including those in charge of the criminal justice system) crumble around him. And once again he remains dignified in the face of systemic corruption and the power-mongering of his seniors.

Things kick off with a nicely shocking local event: just before Christmas, a Senegalese man, part of a group that sells replica handbags on the city’s streets, is gunned down in the Campo Santo Stefano. Brunetti at first assumes it has something to do with infighting. Although there are several witnesses, none can give any meaningful detail about the killer (except that he had hairy hands) and Brunetti begins to despair of unravelling the case.

The book is a little slow to get going, but the plot thickens when Brunetti finds gem-quality diamonds worth 6m euros hidden in a box of salt in the dead man’s room. He is then ordered by his boss to drop the case. Of course, he doesn’t, and with the help of friends and family connections, mostly outside his workplace, he slowly uncovers the machinations of a government that places profit above human life.

Although never truly compelling, the plot is solid enough. The novel’s real appeal, however, lies in the small print of Brunetti’s life: his utterly normal family, his liking for pastries, the exquisite lunches cooked by his wife Paola, his dislike of Christmas shopping. As he moves through the city, “keeping his voice moderate”, stopping for the occasional espresso, admiring a piece of architecture or greeting a friend, his nicely balanced world — against an unsavoury backdrop of greed and power — is cumulatively engrossing. In this domestic detail, Leon roots the power of the ordinary, moral individual. Consequently, as Brunetti quietly undermines his seniors, there is a comforting sense that truth will triumph, even if the victory can only ever be a moral one.

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