Questa autrice è celebrata per i suoi romanzi polizieschi ambientati nello scenario suggestivo e labirintico di Venezia. Attraverso le indagini del suo protagonista ricorrente, si addentra nelle complessità della natura umana ed esplora le ambiguità morali che si trovano spesso all'interno della società. La sua prosa distintiva cattura lo spirito unico di Venezia, sollevando al contempo interrogativi che invitano alla riflessione sulla giustizia e l'integrità.
Scherben auf der Piazza San Marco. Zwei Kinderbanden sind aneinandergeraten, mitten in der Nacht. Während Commissario Griffoni mit weiblichem Gespür herauszubekommen versucht, wie ein Teenager in den Sog eines Flashmobs geraten konnte, nutzt Brunetti seine eigenen Connections. Ja sogar Vice-Questore Patta ist zu allem bereit, um sich und seine Leute vor Vorkommnissen zu schützen, die zumal in einer Touristenstadt wie Venedig nicht willkommen sind.
This engaging collection of stories and essays by the celebrated author of the internationally bestselling Guido Brunetti series showcases her delightful humor and irony. In her memoir, she previously offered a colorful tour of her life, from childhood in New Jersey to adventures in China and Iran, and her love of Venice and opera, but did not delve into her writing life. In this work, she reveals her admiration for great crime novelists like Ruth Rendell and Ross Macdonald, examining their storytelling techniques while dissecting her favorite books. She expresses her love for Dickens' *Great Expectations* and appreciates Sir Walter Scott's generosity of spirit. The author chronicles her extensive research efforts to authentically portray places and characters through Guido Brunetti and his colleagues, including interviewing a diamond dealer in Venice about blood diamonds and connecting with a courageous sex worker to accurately depict women's trafficking in Italy. Venice remains central in her memories, from the irritation of a noisy neighbor to the origins of Carnevale. Her teaching career yields memorable tales, such as helping a young Black boy in Newark and instructing Iranian pilots just before the 1979 Revolution. Throughout, she proves to be as compelling a storyteller about her own life as she is in chronicling Brunetti's adventures. Readers will find themselves captivated by her world.
When two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice's campi, the son of a local hero is implicated. But when Commissario Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy foreigner to vet this man, Monforte, for a job, he discovers that Monforte might not be such a hero after all. This seeming contradiction, and a brutal attack on one of Brunetti's colleagues by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti's attentions. Soon, he discovers the sordid hypocrisy surrounding Monforte's past, culminating in a fiery meeting of two gangs and a final opportunity for redemption. A Refiner's Fireis Donna Leon at her very best- an elegant, sophisticated storyteller whose indelible characters become richer with each book, and who constantly interrogates the ambiguity between moral and legal justice.
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.
Nichts gegen Netflix unter der Kuscheldecke – aber wirklich romantisch wird’s, wenn Verliebte einander im Bett Geschichten vorlesen. In diesem Buch sind Geschichten von zehn Frauen und zehn Männern versammelt. Mal süss und mal heiss, mal traurig oder lustig. Und nicht zu lang und nicht zu kurz. Der oder die Liebste soll ja nicht gleich einschlafen… Dieser bezaubernde Band enthält Klassiker der Weltliteratur von der Bibel über Gustave Flaubert bis zu Kurt Tucholsky, Peter Bichsel, Donna Leon und Doris Lessing, aber auch junge Autorinnen wie Rebekka Salm, Tasha Rumley und Fine Degen. Die Geschichten wurden von Alex Capus und vom Verleger Thomas Knapp gemeinsam ausgewählt. «Gutenachtgeschichten für Verliebte» ist ein wunderbares Geschenkbändchen für viele Gelegenheiten. In Leinen gebunden zudem auch ein haptischer Genuss.
In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony, and good humour, Donna Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned.
A woman's cryptic dying words in a Venetian hospice lead Guido Brunetti to uncover a threat to the entire region in Donna Leon's haunting twenty-ninth Brunetti novel
A woman's cryptic dying words in a Venetian hospice lead Guido Brunetti to uncover a regional threat in this haunting tale. When Dottoressa Donato informs the Questura about a dying patient wishing to speak to the police, Commissario Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, respond promptly. Benedetta Toso gasps about her deceased husband, Vittorio Fadalto, claiming, "They killed him. It was bad money. I told him no." Despite uncertainty about her awareness, Brunetti assures her they will investigate what seems to be a private tragedy. They learn Fadalto collected contamination samples for a company monitoring Venice's water quality and died in a mysterious motorcycle accident. While briefly distracted by Vice Questore Patta's focus on youth crime, Brunetti benefits from the research skills of Patta's secretary, Signora Elettra Zorzi. As he untangles the threads of the case, Brunetti realizes the gravity of the woman's accusation and the broader implications for the region's health. However, justice remains ambiguous, echoing the complexities of guilt and responsibility, themes that resonate throughout the narrative, as Brunetti seeks solace in Aeschylus's The Eumenides.
As a favour to his wealthy father-in-law, the Count Falier, Commissario Guido Brunetti agrees to investigate the seemingly innocent wish of the Count's best friend, the elderly and childless Gonzalo, to adopt a younger man as his son. Under Italian inheritance laws, this man would become the sole heir to Gonzalo's substantial fortune, something which Gonzalo's friends, including the Count, find appalling. For his part, Brunetti wonders why the old man can't be allowed his pleasure in peace. Not long after Brunetti meets with Gonzalo, the elderly man unexpectedly passes away from natural causes. Gonzalo's death goes unquestioned, and a few of his oldest friends gather in Venice to plan the memorial service. But when berta, a striking woman and Gonzalo's best friend, is strangled in her hotel room, Brunetti is drawn into long-buried secrets from Gonzalo's past. What did Berta know ? And who would go to such lengths to ensure it would remain hidden ? Once again, Donna Leon brilliantly plumbs the twists and turns of the human condition, reuniting us with some of crime fiction's most memorable characters.
When important information is leaked from inside the Venetian Questura, Commissario Guido Brunetti is entrusted with the task of uncovering which of his colleagues is responsible. But before Brunetti can begin his investigation, he is surprised by the appearance in his office of a friend of his wife's, who is fearful that her son is using drugs. A few weeks later, Tullio Gasparini, the woman's husband, is found unconscious with a serious head injury at the foot of a bridge, and Brunetti is drawn to pursue a possible connection to the boy's behaviour. But the truth is not straightforward. Following various contradictory leads, Brunetti navigates his way through a world of mysterious informants, underground deals and secret longstanding scam networks, all the while growing ever more impressed by the intuition of his fellow Commissario, Claudia Griffoni, and by the endless resourcefulness of Signorina Elettra, Vice-Questore Patta's secretary and gate-keeper. With Gasparini's condition showing no signs of improvement, and his investigations leading nowhere, Brunetti is steadied by the embrace of his own family and by his passion for the classics. He turns to Sophocles's Antigone in an attempt to understand the true purpose of justice, and, in its light, he is forced to consider the terrible consequences to which the actions of a tender heart can lead
During the interrogation of an entitled, arrogant man suspected of giving drugs to a young girl who then died, Commissario Guido Brunetti acts rashly, doing something he will quickly come to regret. In the aftermath, he begins to doubt his career choices and realises that he needs a break from the stifling problems of his work. Granted leave from the Questura, Brunetti is shipped off by his wife, Paola, to a villa owned by a wealthy relative on Sant'Erasmo, one of the largest islands in the Venetian laguna. There, he intends to pass his days rowing, and his nights reading Pliny's Natural History. The recuperative stay goes according to plan and Brunetti is finally able to relax, until Davide Casati, the caretaker of the house, goes missing following a sudden storm. Nobody can find him - not his daughter, not his friends, and not the woman he'd been secretly visiting. Now, Brunetti feels compelled to investigate, to set aside his holiday and discover what happened to the man who had recently become his friend. In Earthly Remains, Donna Leon shows Venice through an insider's eyes. From family meals and vaporetti rides to the never-ending influx of tourists and suffocating political corruption, the details and rhythms of everyday Venetian life are at the core of this thrilling novel, and of the terrible crime at its heart.
In The Waters of Eternal Youth, the twenty-fifth instalment in the bestselling Brunetti series, our Commissario finds himself drawn into a case that may not be a crime at all. Brunetti is investigating a cold case by request of the grand Contessa Lando-Continui, a friend of Brunetti’s mother-in-law. Fifteen years ago the Contessa’s teenage granddaughter, Manuela, was found drowning in a canal. She was rescued from the canal at the last moment, but in many ways it was too late; she suffered severe brain damage and her life was never the same again. Once a passionate horse rider, Manuela, now aged thirty, cannot remember the accident, or her beloved horse, and lives trapped in an eternal youth. The Contessa, unconvinced that this was an accident, implores Brunetti to find the culprit she believes was responsible for ruining Manuela's life. Out of a mixture of curiosity, pity and a willingness to fulfil the wishes of a loving grandmother, Brunetti reopens the case. But once he starts to investigate, Brunetti finds a murky past and a dark story at its heart. The Waters of Eternal Youth is awash in the rhythms and concerns of contemporary Venetian life, from historical preservation, to housing, to new waves of African migrants, all circling the haunting story of a woman trapped in a perpetual childhood.
Once again, Commissario Guido Brunetti is willing to bend police rules for an acquaintance, even though Elisabetta Foscarini, the woman who asks the favour, is not really a friend. But her mother was good to Brunetti's, so he feels he has no choice but to repay the debt and agrees to look into the matter 'privately', rather than as a police official. Her son-in-law has alarmed his wife by telling her they might be in danger because of something he's involved with. Because Enrico Fenzo is an accountant, Brunetti suspects that the likely reason must be the finances of one of his clients. Brunetti takes a look and finds little- one client is an optician, another Fenzo`s father-in-law, whom he helped establish a charity, another the owner of a restaurant. He is about to tell his friend that he can find no reason for preoccupation when her daughter's place of work is vandalised, forcing Brunetti to turn his attention - still 'private' - to Elisabetta's own family. What he discovers shows the Janus-faced nature of yet another Italian institution as well as the wobbly line that attempts to differentiate between the criminal and the non-criminal.
In "Death at La Fenice," the first novel of Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series, opera star Flavia Petrelli faces unsettling gifts from an obsessive fan as she returns to Venice for a performance. After a young singer is attacked, Brunetti must delve into the mind of this dangerous admirer to protect Flavia.
Novela que los investigadores consideran la respuesta en lengua española a "Manhattan" de John Dos Passos. Libro que equilibra entre el realismo y el surrealismo, absorbiendo en igual medida motivos psicológicos y puramente modernistas, "lúdicos". Cada uno de los personajes de esta obra irónica y despiadada, que transcurre en el Madrid franquista de posguerra, es a la vez una personalidad concreta y única, y parte de un todo. Un valor adicional de "El huevo de oro" son las innovadoras soluciones lingüísticas que se convirtieron en una especie de "tarjeta de presentación" de Sela.
By Its Cover is the much anticipated twenty-third instalment in Donna Leon's bestselling crime series, where Commissario Brunetti is better than ever as he addresses questions of worth and value alongside his ever-faithful team of Ispettore Vianello and Signorina Elettra.
When several valuable antiquarian books go missing from a prestigious…
Erstaunliches und Erhieterndes über das berühmteste Boot der Welt, ergänzt durch die Bilder großer italienischer Meister und mit eienr CD Venezianischer Gondellieder gespielt vom ensemble "Il Pomo d'Oro"
"Twenty-one years ago, when a conductor was poisoned and the Questura sent a man to investigate, readers first met Commissario Guido Brunetti. Since 1992 s Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon and her shrewd, sophisticated, and compassionate investigator have been delighting readers around the world. For her millions of fans, Leon s novels have opened a window into the private Venice of her citizens, a world of incomparable beauty, family intimacy, shocking crime, and insidious corruption. This internationally acclaimed, bestselling series is widely considered one of the best ever written, and William Heinemann is thrilled to be publishing the twenty-second installment, The Golden Egg, in April 2013. When making routine enquiries into a possible bribery case that could embarrass the mayor a humiliation Vice-Questore Patta is very keen to avoid 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 an accidental overdose of his mother s sleeping pills and for some reason Paola is distraught by the news. To the
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. Deeply-connected in religious and political circles, the composer died childless; now two Venetians, descendants of his cousins, each claim inheritance. Caterina's job is to examine any enclosed papers to discover the "testamentary disposition" of the composer. But when her research takes her in unexpected directions she begins to wonder just what secrets these trunks may hold
When a body is found floating in a canal, strangely disfigured and with
multiple stab wounds, Commissario Brunetti is called to investigate and is
convinced he recognises the man from somewhere. Acting on the fragile lead,
Brunetti and Ispettore Vianello set out to uncover the man's identity.
Etterforskeren Guido Brunetti blir tilkalt når en ung militærkadett blir funnet død ved et antatt selvmord. Han blir møtt med en mur av stillhet, militæret beskytter sine egne og de sivile vil ikke snakke. Donna Leon har hatt stor suksess med bøkene om sympatiske, tørrvittige og vinglade italienske etterforskeren Brunetti. Handlingen i bøkene er lagt til Venezia og området rundt. Kriminalromanen ble utgitt på engelsk i 2003.
›Kurioses aus Venedig‹ – das erzählt Donna Leon. Untermalt werden die besonderen Begebenheiten mit Musik auf historischen Instrumenten: Virtuoses von Antonio Vivaldi, extra aufgenommen für dieses Buch von ›Il Complesso Barocco‹.
When a young woman returns from holiday to find her elderly neighbour dead, she immediately alerts the police. Commissario Brunetti is called to the scene.
Commissario Brunetti er Venezias berømte mordetterforsker med store sanselige gleder. Han er gift med universitetslektoren Paola. Når studenten Claudia blir funnet knivstukket til døde, er hun ikke lenger bare Paolas student, men også Brunettis sak. Donna Leon har stor suksess med sine bøker om den italienske etterforskeren Brunetti.
In a sweltering Venice, Commissario Brunetti takes a family break while Ispettore Vianello grapples with his aunt's strange obsession with horoscopes and money withdrawals. As Brunetti investigates a murder linked to courthouse discrepancies, he uncovers dark connections that threaten to unravel the truth.
In "Dood van een Maestro" wordt tijdens de pauze van de opera La Traviata de beroemde dirigent Helmut Wellauer dood aangetroffen. Hij blijkt te zijn vergiftigd. De eigenzinnige maestro had vele vijanden, maar zou één van hen ook een moord op zijn geweten kunnen hebben? Commissario Guido Brunetti duikt in Wellauers verleden en doet macabere ontdekkingen over zowel het slachtoffer als de dader.Studente Claudia Leonardo benadert commissario Brunetti in "Bedrieglijke zaken" met een bijzondere vraag: ze wil weten of haar grootvader postuum kan worden vijgespriken van een misdaad waarvoor hij in het verleden is veroordeeld. De zaak heeft voor Brunettti geen prioriteit, maar dat verandert onmiddellijk wanneer het meisje dood wordt gevonden.
Quan el commissario Brunetti coneix durant un sopar Franca Marinello, la dona d'un pròsper empresari venecià, queda completament fascinat per la seva passió per Virgili i Ciceró, i una mica sorprès per la seva aparença: una dona rossa i superficial que vesteix roba cara i exhibeix un vistós lífting facial.Pocs dies després, el responsable local dels carabinieri fa una visita a Brunetti. Vol obtenir informació sobre la mort del propietari d'una companyia de camions que, pel que sembla, pot estar relacionada amb el transport il·legal de residus i amb l'ecomàfia. Les descobertes del commissario demostren que l'enlluernadora Franca Marinello ha mantingut contactes amb el principal sospitós, un home sinistre amb un passat. Però la veritat sempre té un costat obscur.La nova novel·la de Donna Leon és un treball subtil, apassionant i d'una absoluta actualitat. I com sempre, ens transporta als carrers, els sons, les olors d'una Venècia inundada de vida."El commissario Brunetti ha captivat milions de lectors arreu del món". Avui "Brunetti crea addicció". News
At a dinner party given by his parents-in-law, Commissario Brunetti meets Franca Marinello, the wife of a prosperous Venetian businessman. He's charmed - perhaps too charmed, suggests his wife Paola - by her love of Virgil and Cicero, but shocked by her appearance. A few days later, Brunetti is visited by Carabinieri Maggior Filippo Guarino from the nearby city of Marghera. As part of a wider investigation into Mafia takeovers of businesses in the region, Guarino wants information about the owner of a trucking company who was found murdered in his office. He believes the man's death is connected to the illegal transportation of refuse - and more sinister material - in his company's trucks. No stranger to mutual suspicion and competition between rival Italian police departments, Brunetti is nevertheless puzzled by the younger man's behaviour. Eventually Guarino agrees to email a photo of his suspect, but by the time the photograph arrives, he himself is dead. Was he killed because he got too close? And how is it that Franca Marinello is involved?
One rainy morning Commissario Brunetti and Ispettore Vianello respond to a 911 call reporting a body floating near some steps on the Grand Canal. Reaching down to pull it out, Brunetti's wrist is caught by the silkiness of golden hair, and he sees a small foot - together he and Vianello lift a dead girl from the water. But, inconceivably, no one has reported a missing child, nor the theft of the gold jewellery that she carries. Brunetti is drawn into a search not only for the cause of her death but also for her identity, her family, and for the secrets that people will keep in order to protect their children - be they innocent or guilty. From the canals and palazzos of Venice to a Gypsy encampment on the mainland, Brunetti struggles with institutional prejudice and entrenched criminality to try to unravel the fate of the dead child.
Schon in ihren Brunetti-Romanen interessiert sich Donna Leon nicht nur für kriminelle Mißstände, sondern auch für die Genüsse des Lebens. In den hier versammelten Geschichten läßt uns die Amerikanerin in Venedig teilhaben an ihrem Blick hinter die Kulissen der an Genüssen so reichen Lagunenstadt.
When Commissario Brunetti is summoned to the hospital bedside of a senior paediatrician whose skull has been fractured, he is confronted with more questions than answers. Three men have burst into the doctor's apartment in the middle of the night, attacked him and taken away his 18-month-old son. What can have motivated such an assault?.
Commissario Brunetti and his assistant Vianello secure the release of Marco Ribetti, arrested during an environmental protest, only to face the fury of the man’s father-in-law, Giovanni De Cal, a cantankerous glass factory owner who has been heard in the bars of Murano making violent threats against Ribetti. Brunetti’s curiosity is piqued, and he beings to investigate: Is De Cal the type of man to carry out his threats? By all accounts he is constantly angry, bullying suppliers and fuming against environmentalists. Then one morning the body of De Cal’s bookish night watchman is found in front of the blazing furnace. Could the old man have done it? And who is posioning the waters of Venice's lagoon? Fighting against time, Brunetti must find the murderer before he strikes again.
Sta invecchiando il commissario Montalbano? No, non è questo. È l'amarezza per un caso dai retroscena sconcertanti e orrendi. È il saluto del nuovo secolo a questo Maigret siculo, più colto, più teso e irregolare. Egli indaga tra l'immaginaria Vigàta e Tindari, il promontorio a picco sul mare «col piccolo, misterioso teatro greco e la spiaggia a forma di una mano con le dita rosa». Un triplice omicidio è avvenuto - un giovane dongiovanni che viveva al di sopra dei suoi mezzi apparenti, due anziani pensionati seppelliti in casa che improvvisamente decidono una gita a Tindari. Li collega, sembra, solo un condominio. Ma Montalbano ha una maledizione, sa leggere i segni che provengono dall'antichissimo che vive nel modernissimo continente Sicilia: lo aiutano un vecchio ulivo contorto, la sua squadra, la svedese Ingrid, un libro di Conrad, e un Innominato senza pentimento.
Commissario Brunetti and his assistant Vianello secure the release of an environmental protester, only to be faced by the fury of the man's father-in-law, a cantankerous glass factory owner, in this fascinating novel that combines politics and culture.
Schon in ihren Brunetti-Romanen interessiert sich Donna Leon nicht nur fur kriminelle Mifi-stiinde, sondern auch fur die Gemisse des Le-bens. Die hier versammelten Geschichten han-deln nicht nur von guten Speisen, sondern auch von ihrer Leidenschaft fur Bucher und die Oper und von der Erholung in den Bergen. Und als Amerikanerin in Venedig schreibt Donna Leon nicht blofi liber Bella Italia, sondern auch iiber die Mafia und Machos. Von Venedig blickt sie hiniiber nach Amerika, dem Iran oder Saudi-Arabien.In ihrer direkten Art nimmt Donna Leon Un-vermutetes aufs Warum ist es nicht er-strebenswert, aufierordentlicher amerikanischer Konsul zu werden? Und wie findet man fur die beste Freundin in New York einen Mann? Woriiber reden Crime Ladies wie Barbara Vine und Donna Leon, wenn sie gemeinsam dinie-ren? Und warum weint man beim Lesen von Romanen leichter als in der Wirklichkeit? Wie schreibt man einen Kriminalroman? Und was tun Maulwiirfe eigentlich sonntags morgens um halb neun?Vielseitig, wie sie ist, stellt sich Donna Leon unerschrocken manche Frage - und bleibt da-bei sich selber treu. Ihr Blick ist ebenso unbe-stechlich wie anteilnehmend, und eines fehlt der Humor.
On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a man is killed in a scuffle in Campo San Stefano. The closest witnesses to the event are the tourists who had been browsing the man's wares before his death - fake handbags of every designer label - but they have seen nothing that might be of much help to the police. When Commissario Brunetti arrives on the scene, he finds it hard to understand why anyone would murder an illegal immigrant. They have few social connections and little money; in-fighting is the obvious answer. But once Brunetti begins investigating this unfamiliar Venetian underworld, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake in the immigrant community...
When the body of a wealthy elderly woman is found, brutally murdered in her Venetian flat, Commissario Brunetti decides - unofficially - to take the case on himself.
From the acclaimed author of The Waters of Eternal Youth, Commissario Guido Brunetti dredges up dark secrets from Italy's anti-Semitic past in his captivating eleventh case. Mystery lovers everywhere are addicted to Donna Leon's ever-honorable Commissario Guido Brunetti and her portrayal of Venice's beautiful but sinister byways and canals. In Willful Behavior, Brunetti is approached for a favor by one of his wife's students. Intelligent and serious , Claudia Leonardo asks for his help in obtaining a pardon for a crime once committed by her now-dead grandfather. Brunetti thinks little of it-until Claudia is found dead. Soon, another corpse and an extraordinary art collection lead Brunetti to long-buried secrets of Nazi collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews-secrets few in Italy want revealed.
Tijdens het onderzoek naar de dood van een ambtenaar voor bouwzaken komt een politieman uit Venetië in aanraking met corruptie, geldschieters en drugshandelaren.
Wir befinden uns in der Wohnung von Donna Leon. Nicht nur vom Fenster aus, auch durch die Wände hindurch nimmt sie ihre Nachbarn wahr; meistens jedoch tauscht sie sich direkt mit ihnen aus. Dabei wird sie nicht nur in die Geheimnisse der italienischen Küche und in das Familienleben eingeweiht, sondern sie wird auch Zeugin vieler italienischer Mißstände, gegen die sie ankämpft, als wäre sie Commissario Brunetti in Person.
Venetian cop, Commissario Guido Brunetti, wonders whom he knows to bring pressure on a local government department, to investigate the lack of official building approval on his apartment. But when that same official phones him at work, clearly scared by some information he plans to give Brunetti, and is later found dead after a fall from scaffolding, something is clearly wrong, something with far greater implications than the fate of Guido's own apartment. Brunetti's investigations take him into the unfamiliar areas of Venetian life - drug abuse and loan sharking - while the deaths of two young drug addicts, and the arrest and release of a suspected drug dealer, reveal, once again, what a difference it makes in Venice to have 'Friends in High Places'.
Neither Commissario Brunetti nor his wife Paola have ever had much sympathy for the Italian armed forces, so when a young cadet is found hanged, at Venice's elite military academy, Brunetti's emotions are complex: pity and sorrow at the death of a boy close in age to his own son, and contempt and irritation for the arrogance and high-handedness of the boy's teachers and fellow-students. The young man is the son of an ex-politician; a man of an impeccable integrity all too rare in Italian politics. But as Brunetti - and the indispensible Signorina Elettra - investigate further, no-one seems willing to talk, as the military protects its own and civilians keep their own cousel. Is this the natural reluctance of Italians to involve themselves with the authorities or is Brunetti facing a conspiracy of silence?
Wie kamen die italienischen Männer zu ihrem Ruf als Latin Lover? Was ist das Sinnliche an der klassischen Musik? Und wie findet man für die beste Freundin in New York einen Mann? In ihren Geschichten über Männer und Frauen geht Donna Leon Vorurteile und Idealbilder an, in der ihr eigenen direkten Art, amüsant, engagiert und ohne die Angst, als politically uncorrect zu gelten.
A sudden act of vandalism had just been committed in the chill Venetian dawn. But Commissario Guido Brunetti soon finds out that the perpetrator is no petty criminal. For the culprit waiting to be apprehended at the scene of the crime is none other than Paola Brunetti, his wife.As Paola's actions provoke a crisis in the Brunetti household, Brunetti himself is under increasing pressure at work: a daring robbery with Mafia connections is linked to a suspicious death and his superiors need quick results. As his professional and personal lives clash, Brunetti's own career is under threat - and the conspiracy which Paola had risked everything to expose draws him inexorably to the brink ...
In a small village at the foot of the Italian Dolomites the gardens of a deserted farmhouse have lain untouched for decades. But the new owner, keen for renovations to start, disturbs a macabre grave, and Commissario Brunetti is called in.
The murder of two clam fishermen off the island of Pellestrina, south of the Lido on the Venetian lagoon, draws Commissario Brunetti into the close-knit community of the island, bound together by a code of loyalty and a suspicion of outsiders worthy of the Mafia. When the boss' secretary Signorina Elettra volunteers to visit the island, where she has relatives, Brunetti finds himself torn between his duty to solve the murders, concerns for Elettra's safety, and his not entirely straightforward feelings for her ...
The Venice commissioner, Guido Brunetti, investigates the murder of a museum director who was involved in the traffic of Chinese antiques. Suspicion falls on a wealthy collector.
Commissario Brunetti's hopes of a refreshing holiday with his family are dashed when a body is found in Marghera so badly beaten that the face is unrecognizable. Brunetti searches in vain for someone who can identify the body. Then he receives a call promising some tantalizing information.
When a lorry crashes on one of the treacherous hair-pin bends in the Italian Dolomites even Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura is appalled when he learns of its terrible cargo. This is Donna Leon's fourth novel to feature Guido Brunetti.
The second novel to feature Guido Brunetti, commissario of the Venice Police. Brunetti confronts the grisly sight of the body of an American soldier in a canal. He becomes suspicious and discovers toxic waste-dumping and a high-level cover-up that extends from the Mafia to the US Army.
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.
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 Venice to discover the person responsible. Now, in 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, joy riding in the Laguna with two young Italians. However, Brunetti's curiosity is aroused by the behaviour of the young men, who abandoned the victims after taking them to the hospital. If the injuries were the result of an accident, why did they want to avoid association with it? As Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, investigate the incident, they discover that one of the young men works for a man rumoured to be involved in more sinister night-time activities in the Laguna. To get to the bottom of what proves to be a gut-wrenching case, Brunetti needs to enlist the help of both the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Costiera. Determining how much trust he and Griffoni can put in these unfamiliar colleagues adds to the difficulty of solving a peculiarly horrible crime whose perpetrators are technologically brilliant and ruthlessly organised. Donna Leon's thirtieth Brunetti novel is as powerful as any she has written, testing Brunetti to his limits, forcing him to listen very carefully for the truth.
