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الاستماع والقراءة

Donna Leon

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 irreparably brain damaged. Brunetti’s not sure what to do, but out of a mixture of curiosity, pity, and a willingness to fulfil the wishes of a guilt-wracked older woman—who happens to be his mother-in-law’s best friend—he agrees.

Brunetti soon finds himself unable to let the case rest, if indeed there is a case. A wash in the haunting story of a woman trapped in a damaged perpetual childhood and the rhythms and concerns of contemporary Venetian life, from historical preservation to housing to new waves of African migrants, The Waters of Eternal Youth is another wonderful addition to this series.

“Donna Leon’s Venetian mysteries never disappoint … A bittersweet story that makes us appreciate Brunetti’s philosophical take on the indignities, insanities, and cruelties of life. ” —The New York Times Book Review

“A new Brunetti adventure is always worth celebrating… . In a marvellous and moving last scene, we glimpse a moment of almost transcendent beauty that makes us realize again how important this series is to our reading lives. ” —Booklist (starred review)

“Leon’s latest novel marks the 25th anniversary of her wonderfully atmospheric series… . A sweet poignancy flows through Leon’s narrative like the faint smell of chrysanthemums bordering the ancient palazzos. ” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Atlantic Monthly Press

A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery

The Waters of Eternal Youth

In this “powerful” novel in the New York Times–bestselling series, an Italian police detective delves into two deaths and a dark era of history (The Times, London).

When Commissario Guido Brunetti first meets her, Claudia Leonardo is merely one of his wife’s students. Intelligent and serious, she 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.

Unable to find any living relatives, he visits the elderly Austrian woman who was once Claudia’s grandfather’s lover and with whom Claudia was close—and is stunned by the extraordinary art collection she keeps in her otherwise modest apartment. When she, too, is murdered, Brunetti’s investigation uncovers shocking skeletons in the closet of Nazi collaboration that few in Italy want revealed …

“[A] widely admired series. ” —Chicago Tribune

“The appeal of Guido Brunetti, the hero of Donna Leon’s long-running Venetian crime series, comes not from his shrewdness, though he is plenty shrewd, nor from his quick wit. It comes, instead, from his role as an Everyman … [his life is] not so different from our own days at the office or nights around the dinner table. Crime fiction for those willing to grapple with, rather than escape, the uncertainties of daily life. ” —Booklist

Grove Press

Willful Behavior

A New York Times bestseller: “Brunetti amply displays the keen intelligence and wry humor that has endeared this series to so many. ” —Publishers Weekly

Commissario Brunetti’s latest assignment is to look into a minor shop-keeping violation committed by the mayor’s future daughter-in-law. Brunetti has no interest in helping his boss amass political favors, but has little choice but to comply. Then Brunetti’s wife comes to him with a request of her own. The sweet, simple-minded man who worked at their dry cleaner has just died of a sleeping pill overdose, and Paola loathes the idea that he lived and died without anyone noticing him, or helping him.

Brunetti begins to investigate and is surprised when he finds nothing on the man: no birth certificate, no passport, no driver’s license, no credit cards. As far as the Italian government is concerned, he never existed. Stranger still, the dead man’s mother refuses to speak to the police. And as secrets unravel, Brunetti begins to suspect that an aristocratic family might be somehow connected to the mystery …

“Leon’s success … is testament to the heartening fact that character counts in crime fiction. ” —Booklist, starred review

The Golden Egg

The peace of a Venice library is shattered by the murder of a patron in the New York Times–bestselling series starring “a superb police detective” (Library Journal).

A Seattle Times Best Mystery and Crime Novel of the Year

One afternoon, Commissario Guido Brunetti gets a frantic call from the director of a prestigious Venetian library. Someone has stolen pages out of several rare books. After a round of questioning, the case seems clear: the culprit must be the man who requested the volumes, an American professor from a Kansas university. The only problem—the man fled the library earlier that day, and after they check his credentials, it seems the American professor doesn’t exist.

As the investigation proceeds, the suspects multiply. And when a seemingly harmless theologian who’d spent years reading at the library turns up brutally murdered, Brunetti must question his expectations about what makes a man innocent or guilty.

“Leon offers a finely drawn tale that encompasses theft, blackmail, emotional violence, and murder, as well as a rich array of characters [and] compellingly combines their workaday crime-solving with a detailed picture of a vanishing Venice. ” —The Boston Globe

“Above all, Brunetti is a careful reader, of people, of places, of situations, and he never stops at surface meanings. That’s why we bookish types adore him the way we do, and why this will likely be one of his most-loved adventures. ” —Booklist, starred review

By its Cover

An opera singer is terrified by an obsessive fan in this “stunning” mystery in the New York Times–bestselling series set in Venice, Italy (Library Journal, starred review).

Years ago, Guido Brunetti cleared the opera star Flavia Petrelli in the murder of a renowned conductor. Now the soprano is returning to Venice—and its celebrated opera house, La Fenice—to sing the lead in Tosca.

Brunetti and his wife, Paola, attend an early performance, and Flavia receives a standing ovation. Back in her dressing room, she finds bouquets of yellow roses—too many roses. Every surface of the room is covered with them. An anonymous fan has been showering Flavia with these beautiful gifts in London, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, and now Venice, but she no longer feels flattered, only frightened.

When she confesses her alarm—and then a singer who has caught Flavia’s attention is savagely attacked—Brunetti begins to think that Flavia’s fears are justified in ways neither of them imagined, and he must enter into the psyche of an obsessive fan …

From a New York Times–bestselling and Silver Dagger Award–winning author, this is “one of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever” (The Washington Post).

“Another provocative addition to a fine series, certain to appeal to aficionados of profound literary mysteries such as Louise Penny’s How the Light Gets In. ” —Library Journal, starred review

Falling in Love

A moody mystery set in Italy from the New York Times–bestselling author: “One of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever. ” —The Washington Post

Guido Brunetti has to deal every day with crimes big and small, suffocating corruption, and a never-ending influx of tourists. But at least he gets to do it in Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In this mystery in the bestselling series, the police commissioner’s endurance will truly be tested.

During an interrogation of an entitled, arrogant man suspected of giving drugs to a young girl, Brunetti acts rashly, doing something he will quickly come to regret. In the fallout, he realizes that he needs a break. Granted leave from the Questura, he accompanies his wife to a villa on Sant’Erasmo, one of the largest islands in the laguna. There he intends to pass his days rowing, and his nights reading Pliny’s Natural History. That is until the caretaker of the house, a widowed beekeeper, goes missing following a sudden storm, and Brunetti must set aside his leave of absence and understand what happened to a man who had become a friend.

From a Silver Dagger Award–winning author, this is a poignant novel featuring Guido Brunetti, “a superb police detective—calm, deliberate, and insightful” (Library Journal).

Earthly Remains

The New York Times–bestselling series transports us to “Donna Leon’s enticing, troubled and beautiful Venice … Her latest mystery is one of her best” (Providence Journal).

A New York Times Book Review Best Crime Book of the Year • A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A Financial Times Summer Book Pick • A Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine Most Anticipated Mystery of the Year

Commissario Guido Brunetti is surprised by the appearance of a friend of his wife’s, fearful that her son is using drugs and hopeful Brunetti can somehow intervene. When the woman’s husband is found unconscious with a serious brain injury at the foot of a bridge in Venice after midnight, Brunetti is drawn to pursue a possible connection to the boy’s behavior. But the truth, as Brunetti has experienced so often, is not straightforward.

While Brunetti pursues several false and contradictory leads, he becomes exasperated by the petty bureaucracy that constantly bedevils him and threatens to expose Signorina Elettra, his superior’s secretary. But steadied by the embrace of his own family and by his passion for the classics, he reads Sophocles’s Antigone, and, in its light, considers the terrible consequences to which the actions of a tender heart can lead.

“It’s the living, bleeding humanity of the characters that makes Donna Leon’s police procedurals so engaging… . Tagging along after this sleuth is a wonderful way to see Venice like a native. ” ―The New York Times Book Review

“[A] droll and intelligent series. ” ―The Wall Street Journal

“[A] richly rewarding series … from a master of character-rich crime fiction. ” ―Booklist

The Temptation of Forgiveness

The New York Times bestseller: “Venice shines through the pages of this novel… . Coupled with unexpected twists and turns [it] doesn’t disappoint” (Tulsa Book Review).

A Los Angeles Times Bestseller • A Library Journal Mystery Bestseller • A Booklist Best Crime Novel of the Year • A Crime Reads Most Anticipated Book of the Year

Guido Brunetti is urged by his father-in-law to investigate—and preferably intervene in—the seemingly innocent plan of the elderly Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejeda 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 his pleasure in peace.

And yet, what seems innocent on the Venetian surface can cause tsunamis below. Gonzalo unexpectedly drops dead on the street, and one of his friends—who just arrived in Venice for the memorial service—is strangled in her hotel room. Now with an urgent case to solve, Brunetti reluctantly untangles the long-hidden mystery in Gonzalo’s life that has ultimately led to murder … a resolution that brings him more pain than satisfaction.

“Like Louise Penny, Leon has cultivated an utterly devoted audience, ever anxious to get to know more about her characters. ” ―Booklist (starred review)

“Redolent, as always, with the sights, smells, sounds, and mealtimes of the water-immersed city… . In Leon’s latest, a pleasantly deceptive lull … is dissolved with deadly force. ” ―The Seattle Review of Books

Unto Us a Son Is Given

New York Times Bestseller: Two injured, unconscious American women are found in Venice, Italy, leading a police detective down a dark path: “A splendid read.” —BookPage

 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. In this novel in Silver Dagger Award-winning 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, joyriding in the Laguna with two young Italians. But Brunetti’s curiosity is aroused by the men’s behavior. Why did they run off after bringing the victims to the hospital if the injuries were accidental?

 As Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, investigate, they discover that one of the young men works for someone rumored to be involved in more sinister nighttime 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 organized . . .

 “Highly atmospheric . . . Brunetti continues to delight.” —Library Journal

 “[An] endlessly enjoyable series.” —The New York Times Book Review

Transient Desires

The New York Times–bestselling author of Unto Us a Son Is Given continues “one of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever” (The Washington Post).

When a dying hospice patient gasps that her husband was murdered over “bad money, ” Commissario Brunetti softly promises he and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, will look into what initially appears to be a private family tragedy. They discover that the man had worked in the field, collecting samples of contamination for a company that measures the cleanliness of Venice’s water supply, and that he had recently died in a mysterious motorcycle accident. Piecing together the tangled threads, Brunetti comes to realize the perilous meaning in the woman’s accusation and the threat it reveals to the health of the entire region. But justice in this case proves to be ambiguous, as Brunetti is reminded it can be when he reads Aeschylus’s classic play The Eumenides.

Praise for Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti Mysteries

“[Leon] has never become perfunctory, never failed to give us vivid portraits of people and of Venice, never lost her fine, disillusioned indignation. ” —Ursula K. LeGuin, author of Dancing at the Edge of the World

“You become so wrapped up in these compelling characters… . Each one is better than the last. ” —Louise Erdrich, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction

“Leon’s Venetian mysteries never disappoint, calling up the romantic sights and sounds of La Serenissima even as they acquaint us with the practical matters that concern the city’s residents. ” —The New York Times Book Review

“The sophisticated but still moral Brunetti, with his love of food and his loving family, proves a worthy custodian of timeless values and verities. ” —The Wall Street Journal