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Publisher:
Dark Alley/HarperCollins |
Release
Date: July 27, 2004 |
ISBN:
006074068X |
Format
Reviewed: Paperback |
Amazon |
Genre:
Police Procedural Mystery / Venice / contemporary |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Brenda Weeaks |
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Death At La Fenice
Commissario
Guido Brunetti Mystery #1
By Donna Leon
Thanks
to the confusing water ways, crime is rare in the floating city
of Venice. During a concert break, one of those rare crimes occurs
and a mere doorway is the means of escape. Someone poisoned a legendary
German music conductor and slipped back into the concert. Guido
Brunetti, police commissario of Venice, is working the case and
the immediate suspects are "
a young wife, a soprano
who lied about not seeing him before he died, and a gay director
who had an argument with him before he was killed." Later,
after Brunetti discovers the "dead genius" cruel personality
and Nazi past, the suspects increase.
With
the first in her Venetian series, Donna Leon's image of Venice is
subtle. Maybe due to the fact that it's winter and the tourists
are gone. The occasional mentions of Venice at night are beautifully
written. Leon's skill at concealing the mystery seems effortless.
The main characters are credible and the readers learn just enough
about them to understand them. The reader follows Brunetti in the
investigation, making this a police procedural, but this one is
minus any hardboiled-typed scenes. This is one of the best first
in series that I've read.
Reviews
of other titles in this series
Death
At La Fenice #1
Death
and Judgment #4
Drawing
Conclusions #20
Beastly
Things #21
The
Golden Egg #22
By
Its Cover #23
The
Waters of Eternal Youth #25
Earthly
Remains #26
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