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19. A Question of Belief by Donna Leon A heatwave and high humidity, there’s an atmosphere of oppression in Venice. Commissario Guido Brunetti was dying to escape to the cool mountains with his family, but before he can join them a friend reveals him some court records that show that the local court infamous inefficiency could have a shady motive. At the same time, Inspector Vianello is worried about the weird and expensive interest in astrology of his aunt. And just when Brunetti thought he could go away a vicious crime shakes the city of Venice… |
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18. About Face by Donna Leon Commissario Guido Brunetti meets an intelligent woman with the same interests in ancient Roman writers. He is almost fascinated by her but her disfigured face puzzles him. Franca Marinello asks Brunetti a favor and he is shocked when her request leads him to an investigation about a suspicious death and the illegal transportation of garbage. Soon later a rival Carabiniere that deals with the mafia asks for information about a man murdered in the office of his trucking company before he himself is murdered. How is Franca involved in these illegal operations? |
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17. The Girl of His Dreams by Donna Leon One rainy morning, Commissario Brunetti pulls out the body of a gipsy girl wearing expensive jewelry that was found floating in the Grand Canal. Strangely, nobody has reported a missing child. Inspector Brunetti was investigating a Christian sect at the request of a missionary acquaintance that used to work in Africa. But now he has to put it aside and investigate the unfamiliar ways of the gypsies. In order to solve this mystery, Inspector Brunetti must fight with ingrained institutional prejudice… |
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16. Suffer the Little Children by Donna Leon In this Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery, the Venetian inspector goes to see a pediatrician lying in a hospital bed with a fractured skull. Three men working for the Italian state had burst into his home in the middle of the night and had taken away his little 18-month-old boy. Why such a violent operation? At the same time, Inspector Vianello discovers a fraud scheme between pharmacists and doctors. Inspector Brunetti digs into the case and uncovers babies for sale and the despair of infertility. How are the two scams related? |
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15. Through a Glass, Darkly by Donna Leon A friend of Inspector Vianello, Marco Ribetti, has been arrested while protesting against the dumping of toxic waste in the fragile Venetian lagoon. Commissario Brunetti and his colleague are trying to release him from prison. Ribetti’s father-in-law, Giovanni De Cal, owns a glass factory on the island of Murano and is a bully always making threats against his son-in-law. A well-read watchman is found dead in front of the blazing furnace of De Cal’s glass factory. Did he kill him? Inspector Brunetti tries to find the clues to the mystery in an annotated copy of Dante’s Inferno found at the scene of the crime… |
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14. Blood from a Stone by Donna Leon An African illegal immigrant that sold fake designer handbags dies in a fight in Campo San Stefano shortly before Christmas. Detective Guido Brunetti hasn’t found a motive behind the killing yet. Vice-questore Patta warns him not to delve deeper into the case but Brunetti is bent on getting to the bottom of the mystery. For our honest commissario, trivial crimes don’t exist. If Inspector Brunetti wants to find the killer he has to make sense of an obscure underworld. How far is he willing to go? |
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13. Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon In this Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery the Romanian maid that hurriedly fled Venice is the prime suspect of the murder of a wealthy Venetian lady. As she is trying to leave Italy with a large sum of money and fake documents a train runs her over and kills her. Case Closed! The deceased neighbor comes back from a trip and it becomes clear that the girl could not have committed the crime. Inspector Brunetti decides to investigate the murder anyway and he soon understands that the motive wasn’t greed but lust… |
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12. Uniform Justice by Donna Leon A young cadet has presumably committed suicide. He is found hanged in Venice’s elite military academy. Guido Brunetti feels the tragedy deeply as the young man is the same age as his son. But it exasperates him that the military academy seems more interested in preserving its reputation and closing ranks than in getting to the bottom of it. While his parents are undeniably distressed and seem to believe that their son didn’t commit suicide, they are nonetheless reluctant to collaborate and let Commissario Brunetti pursue the investigation to the end. |
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11. Willful Behavior by Donna Leon Claudia Leonardo, a student of Inpector Burnetti’s wife asks him about the possibility of obtaining pardon for a crime that her late grandfather had committed. Although Commissario Brunetti values the girl’s ethics, he isn’t interested, that is, until Claudia is found dead. Apparently with no family, she lived with an Austrian woman in possession of an astounding art collection. The elderly woman is also found dead and the inquiry leads Guido Brunetti to a buried Nazi collaboration nobody in Italy wants exposed… |
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10. A Sea of Troubles by Donna Leon All of a sudden a small boat moored at the docks on the island of Pellestrina explodes killing two fishermen. Soon it is obvious that the explosion wasn’t fortuitous. But the island’s tight-knit community is suspicious of outsiders and Guido Brunetti reaches a dead end. He reluctantly accepts Signorina Elettra’s offer to visit her relatives on the small lagoon island. Commissario Brunetti is torn between his duty as a policeman and his concern and intense feelings for his beautiful secretary. |
