Commissario Guido Brunetti is an Italian treasure with intelligence and insight worthy of Hercule Poirot and the sweetness of a happily married family man. I read that author Donna Fenice came up with the idea for this wonderful series while actually in a conductor's dressing room at La Fenice (pronouned "La Fayneechay") Opera House in Venice. She obviously knows Venice, having lived there for years, and there could be no other setting possible for Brunetti's adventures.
Famed conductor Helmut Wellauer is found dead from apparent cyanide poisoning in his dressing room between acts at La Fenice Opera House in Venice. Was he murdered by the soprano whom he was blackmailing over her same-sex love affair, threatening the loss of her children to her nasty Spanish ex-husband? Or was it his much youger wife of 2 years with whom he shared a supposedly idyllic relationship? Could the perpetrator have been someone from his past who objected to his reported Nazi sympathies or his blatant homophobia? Commisario Guido Brunetti, with the "help" of his inefficient assistants and his egotistical superior, investigates the crime in this first of a very successful series. Leon is a superb writer and Brunetti is one of the most appealing fictional detectives to hit the mystery scene. The twists and turns of this investigation are logical but unexpected. I can't wait to read more of the Brunetti series.
No comments:
Post a Comment