Dear Great Book Guru, The Fourth of July weekend here in Sea Cliff is filled with great events: the Patriotic Bike Parade, Happy Birthday USA, and the Reading of the Declaration of Independence on Village Green. So much to do …but I am always ready for a new book - perhaps a mystery?  Summer Mystery Maven

Dear Summer Mystery Maven, Every summer I look forward to reading a new Donna Leon novel and I was not disappointed with her latest, SO SHALL YOU REAP, her 32^nd in the series. And what a treat it is!  All 32 books feature Guido Brunetti, a world weary, very wise Venetian police commissioner. These novels are gentle literary mysteries with many references to opera, Henry James (Brunetti’s wife Paola is a professor of American literature), Proust, and the ancient Roman philosophers. Food and drink are described in great detail, as are the canals and neighborhoods of Venice - often little known to tourists. In this latest book, Brunetti investigates the murder of a Sri Lankan  man who has been living illegally in the country for many years. A Buddhist who has lived a circumspect life, the man seems a most unlikely victim of violence. When Brunetti discovers a trove of books and pamphlets dating back to Italy’s 1970’s  political unrest, he struggles to connect the present to the past - and wonders where his own youthful revolutionary beliefs might have led him.  As usual the crime is overshadowed by the intellectual musings of this complex man. Highly recommended!