Uniform Justice

Neither Commissario Brunetti nor his wife Paola have ever had much sympathy for the Italian armed forces, so when a young cadet is found hanged, at Venice's elite military academy, Brunetti's emotions are complex: pity and sorrow at the death of a boy close in age to his own son, and contempt and irritation for the arrogance and high-handedness of the boy's teachers and fellow-students. The young man is the son of an ex-politician; a man of an impeccable integrity all too rare in Italian politics. But as Brunetti - and the indispensible Signorina Elettra - investigate further, no-one seems willing to talk, as the military protects its own and civilians keep their own cousel. Is this the natural reluctance of Italians to involve themselves with the authorities or is Brunetti facing a conspiracy of silence?