Showing results by author "Donna Leon" in All Categories

By Its Cover is the much anticipated twenty-third instalment in Donna Leon's bestselling crime series, where Commissario Brunetti is better than ever as he addresses questions of worth and value alongside his ever-faithful team of Ispettore Vianello and Signorina Elettra. When several valuable antiquarian books go missing from a prestigious library in the heart of Venice, Commissario Brunetti is immediately called to the scene.

When one of his wife Paola's students comes to visit him, with a strange and vague interest in investigating the possibility of a pardon for a crime committed by her grandfather many years ago, Commissario Brunetti thinks little of it, beyond being intrigued and attracted by the girl's intelligence and moral seriousness. But when she is found murdered, clearly stabbed to death, Claudia Leonardo is suddenly no longer simply Paola's student, but Brunetti's case ...

Tod vor dem Brennofen. Ist ein Familienzwist zwischen dem Fabrikbesitzer und seinem Schwiegersohn schuld? Oder mußte der Nachtwächter der Glasmanufaktur dafür büßen, daß er ein fanatischer Umweltschützer und Leser ist? In einer Ausgabe von Dantes Inferno entdeckt Brunetti die entscheidende Spur.

Ein Mädchen treibt tot im Canal Grande und wird von niemandem vermisst. Brunetti aber geht die Elfjährige bis in die Träume nach...

During the interrogation of an entitled, arrogant man suspected of giving drugs to a young girl who then died, Commissario Guido Brunetti acts rashly, doing something he will quickly come to regret. In the aftermath he begins to doubt his career choices and realises that he needs a break from the stifling problems of his work. Granted leave from the Questura, Brunetti is shipped off by his wife, Paola, to a villa owned by a wealthy relative on Sant'Erasmo, one of the largest islands in the Venetian laguna.

In Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon’s first novel in the Commissario Brunetti series, readers were introduced to the glamorous and cut-throat world of opera and to one of Italy’s finest living sopranos, Flavia Petrelli - then a suspect in the poisoning of a renowned German conductor. Now, many years after Brunetti cleared her name, Flavia has returned to the illustrious La Fenice to sing the lead in Tosca. As an opera superstar, Flavia is well acquainted with attention from adoring fans and aspiring singers.

Neither Commissario Brunetti nor his wife Paolo have ever had much sympathy for the Italian armed forces, so when a young cadet is found hanged, a presumed suicide, in Venice's elite military academy, Brunetti's emotions are complex: pity and sorrow for the death of a boy, close in age to his own son, and contempt and irritation for the arrogance and high-handedness of the boy's teachers and fellow-students.

On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a man is killed in a scuffle in Campo San Stefano. The closest witnesses to the event are the tourists who had been browsing the man's wares before his death - fake handbags of every designer label. Officially termed a venditore ambulante or extracomunitario, the dead man was working as a vu cumpra, one of the many Black Africans purveying goods outside normal shop hours and without work permits. Arriving on the scene, Commissario Brunetti's response matches that of everybody involved: why would anyone kill a vu cumpra?

As Venice experiences a debilitating heatwave, Commissario Brunetti prepares to escape the city and spend time with his family in the mountains. For Ispettore Vianello, however, the weather is the last thing on his mind; it appears his aunt has become obsessed with horoscopes and has been withdrawing large amounts of money from the family business. Not knowing what to do, he consults Brunetti and asks permission to trail her. This ‘unofficial’ investigation leads them to the flat of Stefano Gorini.

When Anna Maria Giusti returns from holiday to find her elderly neighbour Constanza Altavilla dead, with blood on the floor near her head, she immediately alerts the police. Commissario Brunetti is called to the scene and it seems the woman has suffered a fatal heart attack. Patta, the Vice-Questore, is eager to dismiss the case as a death from natural causes, but Brunetti believes that there is more to it.

Commissario Brunetti beginnt seinen neunten Fall mit Ermittlungen in eigener Sache: Ein Beamter des Katasteramtes behauptet, die Wohnung der Familie Brunetti sei illegal gebaut worden. Dem Venezianer Brunetti, eigentlich ein unbestechlicher Vertreter des Rechtsstaates, ist sofort klar, dass sich dieses Problem nur mit Hilfe "Feiner Freunde" lösen lässt...

Pendant une représentation de "La Traviata" au théâtre vénitien La Fenice, on annonce brutalement que le célébrissime chef d'orchestre allemand Wellauer ne pourra diriger la suite du spectacle. Le maître gît dans sa loge, le visage horriblement déformé par la douleur. Le commissaire Brunetti se rend sur les lieux, et constate immédiatement que cette mort est suspecte : la victime présente tous les symptômes d'un empoisonnement au cyanure.

La septième enquête du commissaire Brunetti. Dans un champ en friche de la campagne vénitienne, on découvre un cadavre décomposé. Seule sa chevalière permet de l'identifier : il s'agit de Roberto Lorenzoni, fils d'une des plus grandes familles de Venise, kidnappé deux ans plus tôt et jamais retrouvé.

Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejeda - ursprünglich aus Spanien stammend - hat im Kunsthandel ein Vermögen gemacht. Nun verbringt er seinen Lebensabend in Venedig. Was kommt dann? Soll die rigide Familie, die mit seinem freizügigen Lebenswandel noch nie einverstanden war, seine Schätze erben? Oder wer ist der Auserwählte? Brunettis Schwiegervater fürchtet, seinem Freund Gonzalo könne Übles zustoßen. Der Commissario soll helfen - und verläuft sich beinahe in den Abgründen des menschlichen Herzens.

The murder of two clam fishermen off the island of Pellestrina, south of the Lido on the Venetian lagoon, draws Commissario Brunetti into the island's close-knit community, bound together by a code of loyalty and a suspicion of outsiders worthy of the Mafia. When the Vice-Questore's secretary Signorina Elettra volunteers to visit the island, where she has relatives, Brunetti finds himself torn between his duty to solve the murders, concerns for Elettra's safety, and his not entirely straightforward feelings for her....

Twenty-one years ago, when a conductor was poisoned and the Questura sent a man to investigate, readers first met Commissario Guido Brunetti. Since 1992’s Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon and her shrewd, sophisticated, and compassionate investigator have been delighting readers around the world. For her millions of fans, Leon’s novels have opened a window into the private Venice of her citizens, a world of incomparable beauty, family intimacy, shocking crime, and insidious corruption.

When a body is found floating in a canal, disfigured and with multiple stab wounds, Commissario Brunetti is called to investigate and is convinced he recognises the man from somewhere. However, with no identification except for the distinctive shoes the man was wearing, and no reports of people missing from the Venice area, the case cannot progress. Brunetti soon realises why he remembers the dead man, and asks Signorina Elettra if she can help him find footage of a farmers' protest the previous autumn.

Commissario Brunetti will mit seiner Familie nach Südtirol fahren. Er ist ferienreif. Das Verbrechen scheint auch eine Auszeit zu nehmen, nur zwei Leute bitten ihn um einen Freundschaftsdienst: Brusca macht sich Gedanken um unerledigte Gerichtsakten, Vianello um die eigene Tante. Aus heiterem Himmel ist Zia Anita dabei, das Familienvermögen durchzubringen. Vianello fürchtet, sie stehe unter dem Einfluss eines gefährlichen Betrügers. Durch welche Kanäle fließt das Geld? Brunetti will das nach den Ferien aufklären und sitzt schon im Zug - da gibt es einen Toten. Ein Mordfall, der den Commissario in brütender Hitze kreuz und quer durch Venedig führt. Brunetti kämpft gegen Hinterhältigkeit und Scheinheiligkeit, gegen Durchtriebenheit und Korruption. Donna Leons 19. Fall führt in ein Venedig der Scharlatane.

Venecia: ciudad de riqueza...y de codicia. Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejeda, originario de España, ha hecho una fortuna como comerciante de arte. Ya retirado, goza de una vida tranquila en Venecia en compañía de su joven amante, al que ha decidido nombrar su heredero. Pero su familia conservadora, que nunca aprobó su estilo de vida permisivo, y sus amigos más cercanos creen que está cometiendo un error. ¿Quién es su heredero elegido?

Schwächeanfall in der Questura. Brunetti landet im Ospedale Civile. Das Räderwerk des Alltags hat ihn zermürbt. Nachdem man ihn krankgeschrieben hat, will der Commissario in der Villa einer Verwandten von Paola zur Ruhe kommen. Wie wunderbar, einmal nicht Verbrechern hinterherzujagen, sondern in ländlicher Idylle seine Gedanken mit den Wolken ziehen zu lassen. Brunetti soll sich in der Lagune erholen: Doch zwischen Bienen und Blumen kommt er einem größeren Fall als je zuvor auf die Spur.