Donna Leon - Commissario Brunetti Mystery Series 4 Book Collection
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The gifted Venetian detective returns in his 31st case - this time, investigating the Janus-faced nature of yet another Italian institution. Brunetti will have to once again face the blurred line that runs between the criminal and the non-criminal, bending police rules, and his own character, to help an acquaintance in danger.
'Both tremendously enjoyable and deeply humane' JESSIE GREENGRASS, Costa-shortlisted author of The High House
'Leon's elegant, witty prose . . . is a joy' AMANDA CRAIG
Death in a Strange Country
When the body of a young man is pulled out of a fetid Venetia canal, all clues point to a violent mugging. But for Guido Brunetti, Commissario of the Venice Police, robbery seems altogether too convenient a motive. Then something very incriminating is discovered in the dead man's flat - something which points to the existence of a high-level conspiracy. But who could be going to such great lengths to provide a ready-made solution to the crime?
'The characters of Brunetti and his family continue to deepen throughout the series ' The Times
Death at La Fenice
Winner of the Suntory Mystery Fiction Grand Prize
The twisted maze of Venice's canals has always been shrouded in mystery. Even the celebrated opera house, La Fenice, has seen its share of death ... but none so horrific and violent as that of world-famous conductor, Maestro Helmut Wellauer, who was poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Even Commissario of Police, Guido Brunetti, used to the labyrinthine corruptions of the city, is shocked at the number of enemies Wellauer has made on his way to the top - but just how many have motive enough for murder? The beauty of Venice is crumbling. But evil is one thing that will never erode with age.
'What a ripping first mystery, as beguiling and secretly sinister as Venice herself. Sparkling and irresistible.' Rita Mae Brown
So Shall You Reap
On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice's canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Because no official record of the man's presence in Venice exists, Brunetti is forced to use the city's far richer sources of information: gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim. Curiously, he had been living in a garden house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professor, in which Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim's interest in Buddhism, the revolutionary Tamil Tigers, and the last crop of Italian political terrorists, active in the 1980s.
As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni, and Signorina Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle-random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships-that appear to have little in common. Until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.
