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.
';A smart and stylish fast-paced case of intrigue and corruption' in the Venetian-set, New York Timesbestselling mystery series (Los Angeles Times). After a wealthy elderly woman is found brutally murdered in her Venetian apartment, the police suspect her maid, who has disappeared and is heading for her native Romania. But when it becomes clear the maid could not have had time to kill the old woman before catching her train, Guido Brunetti decidesunofficiallyto take on the case himself. As his wife reads about the seven deadly sins, Brunetti realizes that this is probably not a crime motivated by greedrather, the motive may have more to do with the temptations of lust. But perhaps Brunetti is following a false trail and thinking of the wrong sin altogether... ';The detective's humane police work is disarming, and his ambles through the city are a delight; but it is this peculiar insistence on turning every case into a morality tale that gives Leon's fiction its subtlety and substance and makes us follow Brunetti wherever we musteven into the sea.' The New York Times Book Review ';Holds together as an elegant puzzle, as a character study and as a story of an officer's need to reclaim truth in all its complexities from those who want to find easy answers to life's, and death's, perplexing mysteries.' The Washington Post Book World ';A compelling and intricate series of events as convoluted and intricate as the canals of Venice itself... Another expert mystery.' The Baltimore Sun
