A Venetian Elder Abuse

Unto us a son is given is Donna Leon's newest book, published in March, 2019. Unlike her previous 27 installments of Guido Brunetti mysteries, it concentrates on solving a case of financial elder abuse turning into murders (image courtesy Penguin UK).

Eighty-five-year-old Gonzalo Rodriguez de Tejada is a naturalized Italian. He is Brunetti's parents-in-law's best friend, his wife's godfather and unofficial uncle. As a successful art collector and dealer, he has accumulated a vast fortune and expensive Venetian apartments in his lifetime. With his rapid decline in health, Gonzalo, a childless bachelor, decides to leave everything to his newly-adopted son Attilio Circetti, Marchese di Torrebardo, instead of sharing it with his three living siblings. He lives under the illusion that young Attilio is the only one willing to learn his art business, able to love him in his old age, and appreciate his beautiful collections after he is gone. Once the adoption is made, Gonzalo drops dead while walking on the street with his sister. His funeral, conducted back home in Spain, is immediately followed by the deaths of his two oldest friends when they return to Venice for his memorial service.

With the unparalleled phenomenon of an aging population, law suits over inheritances are rising worldwide. Santa Cruz County is no exception. The Santa Cruz Sentinel calls its readers to Act as guardians to prevent elder abuse. The Grey Bears, a local organization to improve the health and well-being of seniors of Santa Cruz County, is not far behind, with a flyer provided by the Santa Cruz District Attorney, distributed far and wide among its "Brown Bag" members on July 26, 2019. (Flyer courtesy Grey Bears)

The phenomenon is such that Donna Leon, who normally creates mysteries in education, finance, medicine, or music, has dived into financial elder abuse law. For the first time, she zooms in on a new crop of predators feasting on wealthy, but vulnerable, elderly Venetians. As long as there is uneven distribution of wealth, there will be greed and abuses of many kinds. Sometimes it is straightforward, other times it needs the expertise of Commissario Guido Brunetti to untangle a disturbing and sobering mystery for the financially abused elders.