Commissario Brunetti receives a call from his wife, Paola, who is evidently very upset. The middle-aged deaf mute with the mental age of a child who helped out at the Brunetti's dry cleaners has been found dead. To the neighbourhood he was just the 'boy' who helped out, but nobody knew much about him. That a soul could have lived such a joyless life is too much for Paola to bear, and she asks Guido if he can find out what happened. With the help of Inspector Vianello and the ever-resourceful Signorina Elettra, Brunetti tries to get to the truth and find some measure of solace.
Having accepted that the Brunetti series has somehow changed to account more about the private and public lives of Venetians, I actually enjoyed this story again. Brunetti's pondering during his walks through Venice are intriguing and the fact that he worries about his family makes him a more interesting character. Sometimes there are too many clichés about the North and South divide in Italy, however.
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