A luminous spring day in Venice, and Commissario Brunetti and Ispettore Vianello take a break from the Questura to come to the rescue of Vianello's friend Marco, who has been arrested while protesting against chemical pollution of the Venetian lagoon. They suceed in securing Marco's release uncharged, only to be faced by the fury of his father-in-law, owner of a glass factory on the island of Murano. The old man is seething with rage at his son-in-law, and his daughter shares with Brunetti her fear that he will actually harm her husband. But it is not Marco who has uncovered the guilty secret of the glass foundries, nor his body that is found dead in front of the furnaces which burn at 1400 degrees, night and day. The victim has left clues in a copy of Dante, and Brunetti must descend into an inferno to discover who is burning the island and fouling the waters of the laguna. A man is dead – but will politics and expedience protect the killer from the law?

When a bloated corpse is found in the canal one early morning, an elegant leather shoe is the only clue Commissario Guido Brunetti has. That and his own memory: Even though the dead man's eyes are closed, the Commissario is convinced he knows their colour from somewhere. But from where? The dead man has a bull neck, a medical condition reportedly caused by a rare illness. But despite his gruesome appearance, he had a gentle soul, as Brunetti and Vianello discover in the course of their investigations. A case that leads them into the bowels of Venice, to Mestre. Family life, strolls and regular visits to the local bars and cafes – Brunetti needs all of this more than ever, while he is solving this upsetting case.

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.

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.

Fifteen years ago, a teenage girl fell into a canal late at night. Unable to swim, she went under and started to drown. She survived thanks to a nearby man, an alcoholic, who pulled her out, though not before she suffered irreparable brain damage that left her unable to learn or mature. The lush claimed he saw her thrown into the canal by another man, but the following day he could not remember a thing. Now, at a fundraising dinner for a Venetian charity, a wealthy and aristocratic patroness – the girl’s grandmother – asks Brunetti if he will investigate. Brunetti is not sure what to do. If a crime was committed, it would surely have passed the statute of limitations. But out of a mixture of curiosity, pity, and a willingness to fulfill the wishes of a guilt-wracked older woman, who happens to be his mother-in-law’s best friend, he agrees. Brunetti soon finds himself unable to let the case rest, if indeed there is a case. Awash in the rhythms and concerns of contemporary Venetian life, from historical preservation, to housing, to new waves of African migrants, and the haunting story of a woman trapped in a perpetual childhood, The Waters of Eternal Youth is another wonderful addition to this series.

Who makes telephone calls to Eastern Europe, Ecuador and Thailand from a bar in the industrial suburb of Mestre on the outskirts of Venice? And why do some of the numbers he dialled appear without names in the address books of two men who die within a week of each other? Questions which would never have been asked if eight Romanian women who were being smuggled into Italy had not been killed. Shortly afterwards, the body of a lawyer who moved in influential circles of bankers and industrialists was found. Accident after accident, and with no apparent connection. But Commissario Brunetti's circle of connections stand him in good stead. His daughter Chiara, and the secretary of Brunetti's boss are only too glad to help Brunetti when it is a matter of tracking down shady characters and putting a stop to the perpetrators of crimes against innocent victims. Death and Judgment is both vivid and sensitive, endowed with an unparalleled humanity and warmth.

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.

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…

Ferragosto in Venice: Commissario Brunetti longs to go to the mountains in South Tyrol with his family. He really needs a holiday and wants to hide away under the duvet and read history books. For a while it seems that even crime is taking a break for the summer, but then two friends ask him for a favour: Brusca is worried about delayed cases at the Tribunale, and Vianello about his aunt. She is in danger of becoming a victim of her trusting nature and Vianello fears she might be under the influence of a dangerous trickster. Which canals is the money flowing through? Brunetti would rather solve all this after his holiday and is already on the train –when a dead body is discovered. A murder case that leads the Commissario all over Venice in the stifling heat. Brunetti fights against underhandedness and hypocrisy, against cunning and corruption. But he still dreams of a world, which is founded on good faith and belief.

Donna Leon’s public is getting larger and larger and Brunetti’s focus as well: While leaving the alleys of Venice behind, Brunetti discovers a big crime in the laguna.

A cosy and yet very uncosy novel.

During an interrogation of an entitled, arrogant man Brunetti acts rashly, doing something he will quickly come to regret. In the fallout, he realizes that he needs a break, needs to get away from the stifling problems of his work.

When Brunetti is granted leave from the Questura, his wife Paola ships him off to a villa owned by a wealthy relative on Sant’Erasmo, one of the largest islands in the laguna. There he intends to pass his days rowing, and his nights reading. But when a new friend goes missing, Brunetti feels compelled to investigate, to try to better understand the man and to piece together the puzzle of his life.

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.

In Death at La Fenice, the first novel in her beloved series, Donna Leon introduced readers to the glamorous and cutthroat world of opera and one of Italy’s finest living sopranos, Flavia Petrelli. Now, in Falling in Love, Flavia has returned to Venice to sing the lead in Tosca. One night after a performance, Flavia finds her dressing room full of yellow roses—too many roses. An anonymous fan has been showering Flavia with gifts in London, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, and now, Venice. Flavia confesses to Brunetti her alarm at these excessive displays of adoration, and when a talented young Venetian singer who has caught Flavia’s attention is savagely attacked, Brunetti begins to think that Flavia’s fears are justified in ways neither of them imagined. He must enter in the psyche of an obsessive fan before Flavia, or anyone else, comes to harm.

When several valuable antiquarian books go missing from a prestigious library in the heart of Venice, Commissario Brunetti is immediately called to the scene. The staff suspect an American researcher has stolen them, but for Brunetti something doesn’t quite add up. Taking on the case, the Commissario begins to seek information about some of the library’s regulars, such as the ex-priest Franchini, a passionate reader of ancient Christian literature, and Contessa Morosini- Albani, the library’s chief donor. When a death occurs, the case takes a more sinister turn and soon Brunetti finds himself submerged in the dark secrets of the black market of antiquarian books.

Commissario Brunetti faces a heinous crime committed outside his jurisdiction: two young American women have been badly injured in a boating accident, joy riding in the Laguna with two young Italians. As Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, investigate the incident, they discover that one of the young men works for a man rumoured to be involved in more sinister night-time activities in the Laguna. To get to the bottom of what proves to be a gut-wrenching case, Brunetti needs to enlist the help of both the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Costiera. The presence of these unfamiliar colleagues adds to the difficulty of solving a peculiarly horrible crime whose perpetrators are technologically brilliant and ruthlessly organized.

Elisabetta Foscarini, a childhood friend of Brunetti’s and still a beautiful woman, turns up at the Questura one day and asks Brunetti for a favour. Could he look into who is threatening her daughter’s family? However, so far there is little concrete evidence of any wrongdoing: who could possibly wish harm on a vet and an accountant who works for a charity? Brunetti is about to dismiss the whole thing as exaggerated maternal anxiety when there’s an attack, and the case takes a very dark turn. It has never been more difficult to bring the true criminal to account.