Donna Leon

"In his many years as a commissario, Guido Brunetti has seen all manner of crime and known intuitively how to navigate the various pathways in his native city, Venice, to discover the person responsible. Now, in Transient Desires, the thirtieth novel in Donna Leon's masterful series, he faces a heinous crime committed outside his jurisdiction. He is drawn in innocently enough: two young American women have been badly injured in a boating accident,...

"Count Falier was urging his Venetian son-in-law to investigate, and preferably intervene in, the seemingly innocent plan of the Count's best friend, the elderly Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejada, to adopt a much younger man as his son. Under Italian inheritance laws this man would then be heir to Gonzalo's entire fortune, a prospect Gonzalo's friends find appalling. For his part, Brunetti wonders why the old man, a close family friend, can't be allowed...

The twenty-fifth mystery in the New York Times–bestselling series “is cause for celebration. . . . Leon brilliantly exposes the corrupt world of Venice” (Bay Area Reporter).
 
At a fundraising dinner for a Venetian charity, a wealthy and aristocratic patroness asks Brunetti if he will investigate the fifteen-year-old attempted drowning of her granddaughter, which left the girl...

"When Dottoressa Donato calls the Questura to report that a dying patient at the hospice Fatebenefratelli wants to speak to the police, Commissario Guido Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, waste no time in responding. "They killed him. It was bad money. I told him no," Benedetta Toso gasps the words about her recently deceased husband, Vittorio Fadalto. Even though he is not sure she can hear him, Brunetti softly promises he and Griffoni...

Commissario Brunetti investigates the death of an animal lover whose decomposed body was found in a Venice canal.

Caterina Pellegrini is a native Venetian, and like so many of them, she's had to leave home to pursue her career. With a doctorate in baroque opera from Vienna, she lands in Manchester, England. Manchester, however, is no Venice. When Caterina gets word of a position back home, she jumps at the opportunity. The job is an unusual one. After nearly three centuries, two locked trunks, believed to contain the papers of a baroque composer have been discovered....

Donna Leon has won a huge number of passionate fans and a tremendous amount of critical acclaim for her international bestselling mystery series featuring Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti. These accolades have built up not just for her intricate plots and gripping narratives, but for her insight into the culture, politics, family-life, and history of Venice, one of the world's most-treasured cities, and Leon's home for over thirty years. Readers...

The internationally bestselling author of the Guido Brunetti mysteries tells her own adventurous life story as she enters her eighties In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony, and good humor, Donna Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned. Following a childhood in the company of her New Jersey family, with frequent visits to her grandfather's farm and its beloved animals, and summers...

A sea of troubles. When the murder of two fishermen brings Brunetti to investigate the island of Pellestrina's tight-knit community, the villagers close ranks and say nothing. Eager for a chance at investigative work, his secretary Elettra goes to the island undercover. Soon after she arrives, Brunetti begins to fear for her life, especially after she falls in love with a fisherman who turns out to be the nephew of the main suspect.--Container. Death...

Blood from a stone : Fake designer sunglasses and handbags - reason enough for murder? As Commissario Brunetti investigates what seems to be a gangland execution among rival immigrant African peddlers of knockoff luxury goods, he discovers dozens of raw diamonds in the apartment of an informant. The trail leads to a viper's nest of government secrecy, corruption, and dirty politics ; his boss pressures him to drop the case.--Container. Willful behavior...