WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 17. Dressed for Death by Donna Leon

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68094.Dressed_for_Death

An interesting mystery novel with gay and trans themes worth a reading during a rainy day. It’s an old mystery book, published in 1994, and it’s set in a mainstream mystery novel series involving the exploits sleuthing of Commissario Guido Brunetti, an Italian police officer from Venice during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The story starts off as a murder mystery, then transforms into a tale of corruption, seedy political hypocrisy, and reveals layers of humanity within its characters.

The book is 352 pages long, or, on audible, 9 hours and 48 minutes long. It’s a decent bit of reading, but the best mystery novels usually take a lot of time and energy to build suspense, plots, and characters.

The story begins with the discovery of a body outside a slaughterhouse in Marghera, a town near Venice, Italy. The slaughter house worker found a beautiful shoe on the ground, which he knew was an expensive luxury item, then he found the body of a man in a red dress. The local police conclude due to the manner of death with how the face was smashed in and the fact that the man was dressed in female clothes, the victim was a transvestite prostitute. They further did not have, or perhaps wish to use, resources on the investigation, so they called in the much larger Venetian police force for assistance. Guido Brunetti was scheduled for a family vacation, but he was recalled to take over the investigation. Through careful investigation and examination of the evidence, the true identity of the murdered man is discovered, he was in fact the director of the Bank of Verona, Leonardo Mascari. Brunetti through a series of events discovers a connection between Leonardo and a young petite gay man who appears far younger, named Francesco Crispo, but during his investigation, he meets Jean Carlo Santa-Marlo, who was scrambling away. Jean Carlo is the head of the morality league, an ultra-conservative Italian organization that is associated with various social and political activity, becoming quite powerful. After an old gay friend discussed the issue over dinner, Guido discovers several facts. Francesco has a history of sleeping around with powerful gay men for support, including paying for his apartment. Additionally, Jean Carlo Santa-Marlo is well known in the gay community of Venice as a hypocrite, who enjoys sleeping with little boys as young as 10 years old and at the same time acting sanctimonious. Further investigation from Guido’s police team discovers inconsistencies with Italian Morality league’s activities and irregular rental properties. Guido himself questions a friend of Leonardo, the new director of the Bank of Verona, Marco Ravenello. Guido finds the man’s straightforward answers and detailed explanation of Leonardo’s sexual activities to be quite strange, considering how open and honest he appeared. During this investigation, there’s a major side-plot involving Vice Quaestor Patta, Guido’s superior in Venice and his wife’s eloping with a pornographic filmmaker after some unknown issue between Patta and his wife. Brunetti through the assistance of Vice Quaestor’s secretary Ms. Elletra was able get financial records of Jean Carlo Santomarlo. Autopsy records show Leonardo did not bleed from any of the cuts on his legs or arms, considered to have been created from a razor during his hair removal. Guido ponders this new evidence as further proof Leonardo may not be a transvestite or crossdresser after all, when Francesco called asking for a late-night meeting at a parking lot. Guido knew this unexpected meeting may be a trap, so he arranged for a stakeout with several police officers, including a female officer named Maria to help pose with another colleague as lovers. Francesco never came to the appointed meeting, so Guido was prepared to leave with his police contingent, but on their way back to the police station, a car slammed into them intentionally several times attempting to force them off the road as a threat. Due to the encounter, Police officer Maria was killed through by the unknown assailant’s collision into their vehicle. The following day of the fatal encounter, Guido went to find Francesco Crispo, but Guido knew that the only reason Francesco did not show up would be due to his own murder. The body counts are building now: a director of an Italian Bank dressed like a transvestite prostitute with business in mysterious financial transactions connected to an ultra-conservative political organization, a young gay prostitute who knew too much, and an innocent female police officer in the line of duty. Guido continued to investigate the murder of Leonardo Mescari. Then, another young gay prostitute named Roberto, who Guido met and befriended during his initial canvassing of the gay underground in Venice, revealed the details of the actual payments for his apartment. It turns out that the Morality League’s apartment for rent was a tax dodge and false front. Roberto would pay 100,000 Liras per month to the Bank of Verona under the assumption of Rent to the morality league, but subsequently, he would pay 1.5 million Liras per month in cash to a man at a bar in order to keep living in his apartment and be allowed to practice his trade there. The transaction begins to unravel the corruption and illegal dealing of the Jean Carlo Santa-Marlo and Marco Ravenello, they are in actuality pimps for the gay prostitutes in Venice, providing a place for living and sex. In a frantic chase, Marco Ravenello is killed by Malfatti, the criminal associate of Marco Ravenello and Jean Carlo Santa-Marlo. Jean Carlo Santa-Marlo originally thought he had escaped justice, including the testimony of Malfatti implicating him in the murder and corruption. However, the shoe that was purchased by Jean Carlo Santa-Marlo. Through the building case and evidence against both men, Guido solves the mystery and exposed the criminal conspiracy of murder and corruption.

“” …Once mud has been thrown, Commissario, it can never be fully washed off. People like to think badly of other people, the worst it is, the happier it makes them. Years from now, when people hear Leonardo’s name, they will remember the dress and they will think of whatever dirty thoughts they want to think”. Brunetti knew she was right…” No one can apologize for human nature, Commissario””

I loved this story despite how dated the themes and language was. Donna Leon may not be as famous as some mystery authors, nor as well known outside European readers and the few American fans that she has gained over the years. Her story came during a time before such things were widespread or TV worthy topics, like a weekly episode of Law-and-Order Special Victims Unit has become with similar storylines. It is a brilliant tale of murder, greed, and the destructive impact of sensationalism. A kind man like Leonardo Mescari, who only attempted to seek the truth, was murdered and his name was dragged into the ground by his well-connected murderers, can never get true justice because human nature itself is foolish and fickle, especially in our age of social gossip and conspiracy theories. Yes, Guido unveiled the truth, exposed the hypocrisy of those in power, and even toppled them, but he can’t change popular opinion. The job of the police to reveal truth is sadly ineffective, when confronted with the vanity of human nature and perceptions. I believe Donna Leon was far ahead of her time in this story, considering the concepts that we are now living with today, where perception rather than facts rule our world.

For newcomers to the LGBT mystery sub-genre, I do recommend reading this book. It is quite riveting and the background of a hot August Venetian summer felt viscerally tangible. The descriptions of the notable monuments, roads, and famous landmarks were great additions to this story, despite how dated the technology and thoughts were. I enjoyed the police procedural investigation that Guido Brunetti undertook in this story, we quickly figured out that the body was not a transvestite through observing evidence by common sense, i.e. the lack of scar tissue from bleeding if Leonardo Mescari truly had interests in crossdressing as his body’s presentation would indicate. That brings us to terms, we no longer use terms such as transvestite anymore in our common tongue rather preferring to clearly delineate gay and trans people by their gender identity and habits such as crossdressing. You can be a drag queen without be a trans. It’s a good reminder to remember how the world viewed our community once upon a time in the late 20^th century.

On a character level, I am grateful to read characters like Guido Brunetti, a tough and capable police officer, who is not homophobic at all. He reveals himself to be quite open to his sexuality and his thought process regarding his love for his wife. Yes, he does admit to himself that he had enjoyed watching men’s crotches at one point out of curiosity, but he revealed that knowledge to his wife early on in their relationship without any resentment or questions about his own masculinity. He may not be gay, bisexual, or even bi-curious, but Guido does show he isn’t afraid to explore sides of himself and be honest about it. I appreciate a heterosexual character like him, who views human beings without prejudice and seek to find the truth within a mystery.

My Rating: 4 out of 5, it is a very dated story and the language used by Donna Leon is no longer in common use to describe within the LGBT community. However, the mystery and the storyline have a timeless quality to it, the theme, perception being sadly far more prevalent than truth, is a reflection of our modern world. We live in times where false narrative permeate our lives. When perception bias obscures rationality, then facts and truth cannot provide justice even to the dead.