QUESTIONS

1. Brunetti and his wife Paola are shocked by their daughter’s callous comment about the murdered African. Are they hypocritical? What prejudices do they have?
   

2. What are the varying reactions to the activities of the vu cumpra Brunetti encounters in the course of his investigation? Some individuals, such as Cuzzoni (see page 100), seem to be sympathetic, but is their sympathy honest, or is it motivated by something else?
   

3. Are the vu cumpra tolerated by official insouciance, a general shrug about illegal immigrants? Brunetti had assumed they functioned under the arm of organized crime. Is there evidence of that?
   

4. Does the description of the bag sellers as beautiful, tall, straight, even happy people set up the victim as sacrificial? Do these Africans represent some simpler, golden age as compared to the sophisticated corruption of the Italians?
   

5. Who is law-abiding, and who is lawless, in this novel?
   

6. How does Leon create atmosphere?
   

7. The solution of the mystery develops rather slowly in this book. Why does the author spend so much time on other topics, such as the Brunettis’ family life, his reading of classical authors and his relationships with his colleagues in the police department?
   

8. “Was this the historian’s plight, Brunetti wondered, never to know what was true but only what made sense? Or the policeman’s?” (page 59) What is he worried about here?
   

9. How does Don Alvise’s character serve as a moral touchstone (see pages 69-75)? Are there other such touchstones for Brunetti?
   

10. What is the significance of the carved (truncated) head? How does Brunetti’s academic research lead him further into the mystery? How do art, mythology and fetishism converge in this artifact?
    

11. What detective novel clichés are there?
    

12. In a mystery novel, someone commits a crime which others try to solve. The crime and its investigation bring the characters into conflict. What conflicts are there in Blood from a Stone?
    

13. How does Brunetti maintain his integrity in the face of a corrupt system?
    

14. What kind of leader is Brunetti?
    

15. Is it believable that a policeman of Brunetti’s experience would be as empathetic as he is?
    

16. What do you think the title implies? How do stones recur as a motif? Look again at Don Alvise’s renunciation of his vocation on page 70.
    

17. What is Brunetti left with as a philosophy at the end of the investigation?
    

18. Many countries in the industrialized West are affected by illegal immigration. How does the author show the complexities of this issue? Does she do justice to the issue?
    

Other questions compiled by Suzanne Fisher (fishers@uhls.lib.ny.us)