Late one night, Brunetti is called away from dinner to investigate the death of a widow in her modest apartment. Though there are some signs of a struggle, the medical examiner rules that she died of a heart attack. It seems there is nothing for Brunetti to investigate. But he can not shake the feeling that something or someone may have triggered her heart attack, that perhaps the woman was threatened. Conversations with the woman's son, her upstairs neighbour, and the nun in charge of the old-age home where she volunteered, do little to satisfy Brunetti's nagging curiosity. With the help of Inspector Vianello and the ever-resourceful Signorina Elettra, perhaps Brunetti can get to the truth and find some measure of justice. Insightful and emotionally powerful, Drawing Conclusions reaffirms Donna Leon's status as one of the masters of literary crime fiction.

One icy winter evening, Brunetti notices a blonde in fur coat and high heels when he and Paola are on their way to a dinner invitation at the Faliers. The blonde woman turns out to be placed next to him at the table, and despite her mask-like features she is unexpectedly well-educated: she has read both Cicero and Ovid, and makes a deeper impression on Brunetti than he himself likes. But the façade of Franca Marinello – »la Superliftata« – is not the only thing that it is difficult to look behind. There is also the impenetrable toxic waste business, which casts its net wider and wider. The special agent of the carabinieri, Guarino, has only just asked the commissario for help, when he is found dead. Brunetti's sole clue is a face in three-quarters profile, photographed on a mobile phone in some Venice bar. Mafia and metamorphoses: Brunetti needs his intuition more than ever to solve this case and to clarify his feelings and his thoughts.

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 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…

A chilly winter's night. At the Christmas market in Campo Santo Stefano, there is a scent of fine food in the air, and it's cold - so nobody notices the two gentlemen with their hats pulled down over their faces, scarves and turned-up collars. They are surrounded by a colourful display, by the blankets laid down by the African street vendors who are hawking their fake Gucci, Prada and Missoni bags in the heart of Venice. But this peaceful atmosphere of Christmas goodwill is suddenly shattered by the sound of five gunshots. One of the street vendors has been murdered in broad daylight. No-one displays much interest in solving the murder case of an illegal immigrant – no-one, that is, except Brunetti. Behind Venice's well-known facades, the Commissario discovers a world with a law of its own. And when the powers that be attempt to hinder his investigation, Brunetti suspects that this case will prove to be particularly enthralling...

As Venice braces for a winter tempest, Commissario Guido Brunetti, Donna Leon's intrepid Italian sleuth, finds out that an old friend has been savagely beaten at the palazzo home of reigning diva Flavia Petreli. Then, as the flood waters rise, a corpse is discovered - and Brunetti must wade through the chaotic city to solve his deadliest case yet.
Sinister and exotic, Acqua Alta is another chilling addition to Donna Leon's bestselling series.

On a cold, grey November morning, sixteen-year-old Ernesto Moro is found hanged in the washroom of the San Martino cadet academy. Why would such a young person commit suicide, seemingly without reason? Or has there been a cover-up – in order to protect someone's reputation? The police investigation comes up against a wall of silence: the ranks have closed. Nobody – not the teachers, nor the well-drilled cadets, not even the boy's family – seems interested in finding out more precise details. But Brunetti will not let go the case of this young man, whose father is renowned for his political integrity. As a father himself, Brunetti will not rest until he has discovered what is behind the incident. Elites and their loyalties – Donna Leon plumbs the depths of the secret channels running between military and political power.

There is a bureaucratic Sword of Damocles hanging over the Brunetti family: when they found their apartment overlooking the roofs of Venice as a newly married couple twenty years ago, Paula had been pregnant, and they did not ask too many questions. And now, suddenly, an official from the land registry office, Franco Rossi, is standing on the doorstep with questions about building permits and other documents. But Brunetti is not fooled by the forest of small print and soon recognises an abyss of contradictions. It is not long before he starts investigating – and not only in his own interests: the man from the land registry office is killed in a fall from a scaffolding, and a telephone number in his wallet leads to a lawyer who is shot dead in the bright light of day. Drugs, usury, corruption: surrounded by organised crime, Brunetti is so angry at his own impotence that he reverts to unusual measures.

When Paola Brunetti throws a stone through the window of a travel agency in Campo Manin as a protest against sex tourism in the Third World, it is not only the owner of the agency, Mitri, who gets into trouble, but also Paola's own husband. How can the police inspector go about his work protecting the laws of the land when his own wife takes matters into her own hands? The press pester the inspector's wife, and Paola's original aim gets lost along the way. Herself a mother of two children, she wants to draw attention to a situation to which the public turns a blind eye all too often. But did she think about the consequences for Brunetti – to whom she is naturally no less loyal than to her own conscience? A very exciting book about law and justice, civil disobedience, moral conflict and blind violence. Explosive material, and at the same time a fantastic portrait of a marriage: How will Paola and Guido Brunetti manage to iron out their differences?

Brunetti has always regarded abduction as the most horrible of crimes, not only because he has two children of his own, but also because he is scandalised by the thought that a life may depend on an arbitrary ransom, a life which may be simply extinguished if the price is not paid. In a small village at the foot of the Italian Dolomites the gardens of a deserted farmhouse have lain untouched for decades. But the new owner, keen for renovations to begin, is summoned urgently to the house when his workmen disturb a macabre grave. The coat-of-arms on the dead man's ring leads to a rich and influential Venetian family, whose only son has been missing for some time. The father was only too willing to pay the ransom when his son was abducted, but the kidnappers had disappeared into thin air. Is there more behind it than just another kidnapping? Brunetti gets out the files and digs deeper than the body was buried. The motives of the action are not always as noble as the lineage the characters are descended from. And things are not always as idyllic as they are in the Brunetti family.

Commissario Brunetti does not have much to do when his boss is on a holiday, and Venice is just waking up from its winter sleep. But then the machinations of the church begin to cast their shadow over his professional and private life. Suor Immacolata, the beautiful, self-sacrificing Sicilian nun who looked after his mother has left her religious order with a terrible suspicion after the unexpected deaths of five patients. Brunetti makes enquries in the churches and hospitals, looks for the dead people's heirs, and soon finds himself in a labyrinth of religous faith and hypocrisy. He encounters a colourful motley of people, but he cannot find a convincing suspect. Fortunately, Brunetti's network of informers and his wealth of ideas are almost as effective as the influence of the church...

Early one morning Guido Brunetti, Commissario of the Venice Police, confronts a grisly sight when the body of a young man is fished out of a fetid Venetian canal. All the clues point to a violent mugging, but for Brunetti the robbery motive seems altogether too convenient. Then something very incriminating is discovered in the dead man's flat, something which points to the existence of a high level cabal - and Brunetti becomes convinced that somebody, somewhere, is taking great pains to provide a ready-made solution to the crime.