Worth reading just for the ambiance of the setting in Venice and details of life there. I watched the TV series available on DVD at the library (in German with subtitles) first, and the beautiful photography, scenic setting and excellent actors really enhanced my enjoyment of the books.

Book 13

We don't know what happened to the crooked lawyer at the end of the book - was she ever charged or convicted of a crime?

Another dark and unsettling Venice mystery solved by Commissario Brunetti. Leon is the master of red herrings, but somehow it's worse here because the compelling (and hair-raising) questions brought up by the tangent aren't answered, so the reader is left to guess and assume the worst.

Brunetti and his wife Paola spend much of the book meditating on sin and whether in our modern world it still exists. At the end of the book he realizes that there is still one even the best of us--and perhaps mostly the best of us--can be undone by: pride.

Smart and almost impossible to predict: another winner.

(Book 13 in the Guido Brunetti series)