It is the interweaving circumstances of these clever whodunits that really appeals to me. Add the joy of meeting an old friend, Commissario Brunetti, and you have one of those comfortable books where you know all will be revealed but you try desperately to find the culprit before the protagonist does. I love them, the red herrings, the uncertainty and with these, the wonderful setting of Venice. If you are new to her you’ve got a good 12 in her back catalogue to enjoy. If familiar, then Brunetti is as charming as ever.
'[Leon] has a wonderful feeling for the social complexities of Venice, where corruption is as old and deep and treacherous as the canals ... Like all the best detective fiction, Doctored Evidence not only solves a mystery, but also anatomises the setting in which the crime occurred' Daily Mail
When a wealthy Venetian woman is found brutally murdered, the prime suspect is her Romanian maid, who dies in a tragic accident while fleeing the city, carrying a considerable sum of money and forged papers. When the old woman's neighbour returns from abroad, confessing to have given the maid the money out of pity, questions begin to arise, and Commissario Brunetti decides to take the case on himself. But what could have been the true motive for the murder in such nebulous circumstances if not greed? Or is Brunetti thinking of the wrong sin altogether?
