This week I read two books.

This title, written by Jacqueline Boulden is the winner of several Indie awards.

At a corporate function, Emily Archer, tired of the sexist comments and harassment, slaps a man who gropes her. Since he is an important client of her company, she is immediately threatened with dismissal. Her boss manages to keep that from happening but she is suspended. Therapy reveals a long ago trauma.

Now sensitized, she is made uncomfortable by the behavior of a new hire. This evolves in the reveal of a sexual predator, and puts her life in danger.

Although not a whodunit, engrossing. Recommended.

I also read the new mystery of Donna Leon.

I’ve read all of Leon’s books and greatly enjoyed them but I found this one disappointing. The book starts with a bang. The members of two gangs are arrested and brought into the station. When the father of one of the boys, does not pick him up, Griffoni walks him home. At the same time, Brunetti is asked to vet that father, Dario Monteforte, for a job.

Monteforte, lauded as a hero twenty years previously, was never awarded a medal. Why the contradiction?

The case becomes even more serious when the forensic scientist, Enzo Bocchese, is attacked in his apartment.

I found this book confusing. The two halves don’t mesh well and it felt to me as though two different stories had been mashed together. Leon’s writing is, as usual, lovely and her characters are wonderful but I felt the story was disappointing.