Customer Reviews: Read 46 more reviews...
 Murder in Venice November 23, 2008
This a very good, well written murder mystery, with an appealing lead detective, set in one of the most beatiful cities in the world.
Venice in many ways is the star of this book. Commissario Guido Brunetti differs from the brooding, obsessed loners who track down the killers in most murder mysteries in that he has a life. He is quite happily married to an aristocratic professor, and her family connections actually help solve the case for him. The chapters of domestic bliss, far from being distractions, actually advance the plot.
I have seen Donna Leon's Venice series on book shelves for years, and finally took the plunge a couple weeks ago. If this first one is any indication of the rest of the series, I may be hooked.
 The color is grey October 4, 2008
You know how real PIs, cops, and spies for that matter, are forever saying, perhaps even lamenting, that their life is not at all as interesting as books, movies and TV would make it out to be. Well, here is a series that understands just how dull policing can be and is not afraid to show it. I just wonder if we need books that are duller than real life.
Since I would like to find a new series to read, I've borrowed [some books you just don't want to own] another in this series, much further up the line in hopes that the author has learned how to write because, oddly for a book with many raves, the writing style, at least of the first one, is less than compelling.
Nice Little Crime Story June 10, 2008
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 March 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
I enjoyed it so much, I have ordered the second in the series. January 6, 2008
Death at La Fenice, written in 1992, is Donna Leon's first in her series of crime novels set in Venice, featuring Guido Brunetti, Commissario of Police. (The American author has lived in Venice for many years and has taught English literature at degree level.)
La Fenice (pronounced La Fen-ee-chay) is the city's opera house, and the death is that of a visiting German conductor. (On her own website, the author relates how the impetus behind the book was her dislike of a certain German conductor with a dubious past, presumably von Karajan.)
Over 25 chapters and 338 pages, my interest was maintained: although not an un-put-down-able book, it is nevertheless a willing pick-me-up-able one. The characterisation is good, the description of Venice is realistic, and the plot believable. I enjoyed it so much, I have ordered the second in the series, Death in a Strange Country.
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