The girl of his dreams : a commissario Guido Brunetti mystery / Donna Leon

When a friend of Commissario Guido Brunetti's brother, a priest recently returned from years of missionary work in Africa, calls on the Commissario with a request, Brunetti suspects the man has hidden motives. A new, American-style Christian sect has begun to meet in private homes in the city, and it's possible the priest is merely apprehensive of the competition. But the preacher could also be fleecing his growing flock, so Brunetti and his wife, Paola, along with Inspector Vianello and his wife, go undercover." "The investigation has to be put aside, however, when, one cold and rainy morning, the body of a gypsy girl is found floating in a canal. It looks like the girl may have fallen off a nearby roof while fleeing an apartment she had robbed but, inconceivably, no one has reported a missing child or the theft of the gold ring she carries. And when Brunetti ventures out to a gypsy camp on the mainland to inform the parents, the insular community resists his questions, refusing to let him speak with the mother." "Like a number of Leon's previous novels, The Girl of His Dreams explores the people and cultures at the margins of Italian life, in this case, the secretive world of the Romani people, scores of thousands of whom exist both inside and outside of society. Haunted by the girl, Brunetti finds himself struggling with both institutional prejudice and entrenched criminality as he attempts to solve the crime.

English