Product Description

Venice detective Guido Brunetti swings into action when the curator of Venice's most prestigious museum turns up dead, bludgeoned by a priceless artifact, and American archaelogist Brett Lynch, a close friend, narrowly escapes the killer. 10,000 first printing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #980516 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-27
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.com Review
An American living near Venice, Donna Leon has crafted an imaginative series of mysteries set in the waterborne city, all starring police detective Guido Brunetti. In this, the fifth installment, Brunetti sets out to investigate an assault on an American archeologist who herself is investigating a museum exhibition of Chinese antiquities. The moods of Venice and the reflections of the canny, emotional detective are the most affecting qualities of the book.

From Publishers Weekly
Intelligent and charming Guido Brunetti, the commissioner of police in Venice (seen before in Death at La Fenice and Death in a Strange Country), continues to confront corruption in his fifth adventure. His moral anger pervades and gives substance to this mystery, from its peripheral incidents to the resolution, in which the villain explains all and which occurs in the rising waters of the title. Investigating an assault on American archeologist Brett Lynch, Brunetti wonders whether the two men who beat her are simply homophobic (Lynch's lover is a popular soprano) or, as Lynch suggests, whether they were trying to prevent her planned meeting with museum director Francesco Semenzato. Five years earlier, Lynch and Semenzato brought a touring display of Chinese antiquities to Venice. Recently, Lynch, on a dig in China, saw the same pieces and realized some had been replaced by fakes. Brunetti's sources suggest that Semenzato's interests in antiques are more diverse than is proper for a powerful museum director, but there's no opportunity for a confrontation: only four days after the beating, Semenzato is murdered. As Brunetti wends his way around the insider's Venice and through accumulating information (not all obtained entirely honestly), he also deals with his superiors, his wife and teenage daughter, all the while remaining the thoughtful, sensitive sleuth readers have come to expect.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Leon, author of four Venetian mysteries, returns with a fifth. All feature Italian police commissioner Guido Brunetti, and all are rich in local ambiance and intrigue. In Leon's latest tale the worlds of opera and art intertwine when an archaeologist, whose lesbian lover is an opera diva, discovers that an exhibit on Chinese ceramics is full of fakes. Set amid the background of winter flooding in Venice, Acqua Alta is a subtle study of emotion and character. Anna Fields does a masterful job with the rich Italian and Chinese vocabulary and provides an enjoyable narration, but her performance is marred by her impersonation of male voices, which seems forced and distracting. A sophisticated mystery; purchase where the author's works are popular. Recommended. -Ray Vignovich, West Des Moines P.L.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Donna Leon fans should rush to Amazon.co.uk!
"Aqua Alta" is another splendid, can't-put-it-down engagement with Guido Brunetti. I despaired of reading any more of Donna Leon's fine prose and carefully crafted plots when notified last year that publication had been cancelled of a forthcoming book. Led by a note in another review, I checked out Amazon.co.uk, where I found "Death of Faith," "A Noble Radiance," and the book I just finished, "Fatal Remedies." Each is as good or better than its predecessor. I remain a dedicated fan. (Be aware, "The Anonymous Venetian" was published in the US with the title "Dressed for Death.") Also, some of Leon's works that are out-of-print in the US are available in the UK.

Another winner by Donna Leon
I recently discovered this mystery writer and am backtracking to read all her books. She never fails to deliver a wonderful read. Her picture of Venice and its society and politics is piercingly honest and although she shows all that society's warts and corruption, there is a sense of objectivity and compassion in her telling and in her police commissario, Guido Brunetti. Brunetti is a full, well-realized character and his family gives him even more depth. Contrary to many mysteries, where all the loose ends are tied up and justice is served. Her stories often end with ambiguity and not necessarily with the bad guys getting their just rewards.

As an aside, his relationship and dealings with his superior, Patta, is worth the price of admission and give an even stronger, quite humorous picture of his control and tolerance.

Acqua Alta, the title, refers to the seasonal torrential rains of Venice and provides a backdrop to a tale of art, thefts and violence.

Acquisition Fever
I bought this after reading "Doctored Evidence," Donna Leon's latest book. I think beatings and violence in mysteries are overused and boring so I'm subtracting one star, but I enjoyed the atmospheric descriptions of Venice and am a fan of mysteries about the art world or Italy (so I also recommend Iain Pears' "art history-mystery" books). This novel portrays acquisition lust at its ugliest. I have added four more Donna Leon books to my amazon.com shopping cart.