Product Description

There is little violent crime in Venice, a serenely beautiful floating city of mystery and magic, history and decay. But the evil that does occasionally rear its head is the jurisdiction of Guido Brunetti, the suave, urbane vice-commissario of police and a genius at detection. Now all of his admirable abilities must come into play in the deadly affair of Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world-renowned conductor who died painfully from cyanide poisoning during an intermission at La Fenice.

But as the investigation unfolds, a chilling picture slowly begins to take shape -- a detailed portrait of revenge painted with vivid strokes of hatred and shocking depravity. And the dilemma for Guido Brunetti will not be finding a murder suspect, but rather narrowing the choices down to one ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12318 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Released on: 2004-07-27
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A breathless beginning and an unexpected lack of reference to the lush setting mark this lively launch of a projected series of Venetian mysteries. When legendary German conductor Helmut Wellauer is found dead in his dressing room two acts into a performance of La Traviata , police commissario Guido Brunetti is called in. Among those who might have provided the cyanide poison that killed the maestro, immediate suspects include the vaunted conductor's coolly indifferent young wife and those many in the music industry who are offended by his homophobia. Methodically probing into the victim's past, Brunetti also uncovers Wellauer's Nazi sympathies and a lead to a trio of singing sisters from yesteryear--one now destitute, one dead and the other missing. Though burdened by a dictatorial superior and two lumpen subordinates, Brunetti gets help from his aristocratic wife and her well-connected parents. The narrative's best moments involve Brunetti's wry exchanges with his colleagues and the cunningly masked, obvious solution.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Cyanide poisoning during the second-act intermission of La Traviata leaves the eminent conductor Helmut Wellauer dead, survived by a constellation of suspects from prima Flavia Petrelli (whose lesbian liaison with a wealthy American archeologist, Brett Lynch, Wellauer was threatening to expose) to director Franco Santore (furious over Wellauer's refusal to honor a bargain to find a job for Santore's prot,g,)--and including of course Wellauer's suddenly wealthy, and much younger, widow Elizabeth. The investigating officer, Guido Brunetti, Vice-Commissario of the Venice Police, brings to his first case tact, persistence, and a useful sympathy with young women--which becomes suddenly pertinent when he unearths Wellauer's prewar involvement with a family of three star-crossed girls. Deftly plotted and smoothly written in the Ngaio Marsh cultural mode, but recommended even for readers who, like Brett Lynch, don't care for Verdi. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

--St Louis Post-Dispatch
"A challenging mystery, a sophisticated drama, and unique glimpse of a medieval society that stilll flourishes."

Customer Reviews

Nice Little Crime Story
I'm not following the five star group, but I enjoyed the story and the way Donna Leon writes. There's enough personal information about each of the main characters to add the realness and enjoy the little fickle behaviors of each, without it becoming the main driving part of the story telling. And the story itself is good, but not excellent in my opinion, because certain things that happened are almost too bad and too cliche-ish. There's a bit of exaggeration here and there of how bad some of the living conditions are and how much certain people have suffered because of this evil genius. And yet, in the end, we have a reasonable explanation of what happened, a charitable act of forgiveness that makes us feel better about "the law", and there's a certain balance of good and evil that feels like real justice instead of "letter of the law."

I'll definitely read more of the series to get the larger view. This was my first.

Operatic complexities
A death at the opera, a matter for the police, and my, how quickly the action starts. In Venice the police arrive by boat. Guido Brunetti is the Commissario of the police and the hero of this series.

It is learned the dead man is Wellauer, a German conductor. It seems that the death is caused by the ingestion of cyanide. One of the newspapers pictures the deceased maestro with Maria Callas.

Brunetti's wife's parents live in a palazzo. He asks his wife to arrange for him to attend a party there so he can ask questions about the maestro. Brunetti feels that in Venice gossip is the real cult. After the party Guido Brunetti decides to interview some of the musicians.

I really don't like to give genre fiction five stars, but this is exceedingly good.

Giustizia the Brunetti Way
I had never read a Donna Leon novel before, and it is my misfortune for her Death at La Fenice was brilliant! Venice comes alive in her flawless prose and although the murder could have occurred anywhere in the world, the setting and its unique sub-culture lent an aura of beauty and elegance to the narrative. This is a quiet, sometimes hilarious, but always sensitive whodunit. I don't have to include a synopsis here as many others have done a better job of it. Suffice it to say that I was very satisfied with it. The plot was imaginative, the ending touching, the protagonist a delight to know. Well done, Ms. Leon!