Donna Leon Books In Order

Guido Brunetti Books In Publication Order

  1. Death at La Fenice (1992)
  2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
  3. The Anonymous Venetian / Dressed for Death (1994)
  4. Venetian Reckoning / Death and Judgment (1995)
  5. Acqua Alta / Death in High Water (1996)
  6. The Death of Faith / Quietly in Their Sleep (1997)
  7. A Noble Radiance (1998)
  8. Fatal Remedies (1999)
  9. Friends in High Places (2000)
  10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
  11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)
  12. Uniform Justice (2003)
  13. Doctored Evidence (2004)
  14. Blood from a Stone (2005)
  15. Through a Glass, Darkly (2006)
  16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)
  17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)
  18. About Face (2009)
  19. A Question of Belief (2010)
  20. Drawing Conclusions (2011)
  21. Beastly Things (2012)
  22. The Golden Egg (2013)
  23. By its Cover (2014)
  24. Falling in Love (2015)
  25. The Waters of Eternal Youth (2016)
  26. Earthly Remains (2017)
  27. The Temptation of Forgiveness (2018)
  28. Unto Us a Son Is Given (2019)
  29. Trace Elements (2020)
  30. Transient Desires (2021)
  31. Give Unto Others (2022)

Guido Brunetti Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Brunetti’s Cookbook (2009)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. The Jewels of Paradise (2012)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Handel’s Bestiary: In Search of Animals in Handel’s Operas (2010)
  2. Venetian Curiosities (2012)
  3. My Venice and Other Essays (2013)
  4. Gondola (2013)

Guido Brunetti Book Covers

Guido Brunetti Non-Fiction Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Donna Leon Books Overview

Death at La Fenice

There is little violent crime in Venice, a serenely beautiful floating city of mystery and magic, history and decay. But the evil that does occasionally rear its head is the jurisdiction of Guido Brunetti, the suave, urbane vice commissario of police and a genius at detection. Now all of his admirable abilities must come into play in the deadly affair of Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world renowned conductor who died painfully from cyanide poisoning during an intermission at La Fenice. But as the investigation unfolds, a chilling picture slowly begins to take shape a detailed portrait of revenge painted with vivid strokes of hatred and shocking depravity. And the dilemma for Guido Brunetti will not be finding a murder suspect, but rather narrowing the choices down to one…

Death in a Strange Country

From Kirkus Reviews Something different for Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti, whose first case Death at La Fenice, 1992 so expertly resurrected the closed circle whodunit. This time, the murder of Sgt. Michael Foster, public health inspector at the American military hospital at Vicenza, produces such a pronounced lack of reaction Brunetti’s officious boss Patti insists it be written off as a mugging; somebody plants cocaine in Foster’s quarters in the hope of heading off further questions; even Foster’s lover and commanding officer insists she has no idea why he’s been killed that the fix is clearly in with either the American military or the Italian police. Patti pulls Brunetti off the case to work a burglary from a Grand Canal palazzo, but that and more sinister high level skullduggery are predictably tied in too. No whodunit, but a measured, thoughtful conspiracy investigation that goes a long way toward extending Leon’s range. This is definitely an author to watch. Copyright 1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Anonymous Venetian / Dressed for Death

Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti series grows more popular in America with the publication of every new novel. In this installment, Brunetti s hopes of a refreshing family holiday in the mountains are once again dashed when a gruesome discovery is made in Marghera a body so badly beaten the face is completely unrecognizable. Brunetti searches Venice for someone who can identify the corpse, but he is met with a wall of silence. Then he receives a telephone call from a contact who promises some tantalizing information. And before the night is out, Brunetti is confronting yet another appalling, and apparently senseless, death.

Venetian Reckoning / Death and Judgment

With more than 500,000 copies of her books in print in the United States, Donna Leon continues to find new fans for her riveting Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries. In Death and Judgment, a truck crashes and spills its dangerous cargo on a treacherous road in the Italian Dolomite mountains. Meanwhile, in Santa Lucia, a prominent international lawyer is found dead aboard an intercity train. Suspecting a connection between the two tragedies, Brunetti digs deep for an answer, stumbling upon a seedy Venetian bar that holds the key to a crime network that reaches far beyond the laguna. But it will take another violent death in Venice before Brunetti and his colleagues begin to understand what is really going on.

Acqua Alta / Death in High Water

Donna Leon’s growing American fan base is hungry for more of the books from her internationally bestselling series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti. Now in what many consider one of the finest in the series, Venice braces for the onslaught of acqua alta the rising waters from torrential rain. But Brunetti has his own problems, beginning with the savage beating of an old friend. When a man s body is discovered, Brunetti must wade through the chaos to solve one of his deadliest cases. Full of marvelous plot twists, Acqua Alta is a chilling addition to Donna Leon s addictive series.

The Death of Faith / Quietly in Their Sleep

Donna Leon’s mastery of plot, her understanding of Venetian manners and mores, and above all her philosophical, unfailingly decent protagonist have made the Commissario Brunetti mysteries bestsellers around the world, including an ever growing American audience. In The Death of Faith, Brunetti comes to the aid of a young nursing sister who is leaving her convent following the unexpected death of five patients. At first Brunetti s inquiries reveal nothing amiss, and he wonders whether the nun is simply creating a smoke screen to justify abandoning her vocation. But perhaps she has stumbled onto something very real and very sinister something that puts her life in imminent danger.

A Noble Radiance

Donna Leon has topped European bestseller lists for more than a decade with a series of mysteries featuring clever Commissario Guido Brunetti. Always ready to bend the rules to uncover the threads of a crime, Brunetti manages to maintain his integrity while maneuvering through a city rife with politics, corruption, and intrigue. In A Noble Radiance a new landowner is summoned urgently to his house not far from Venice when workmen accidentally unearth a macabre grave. The human corpse is badly decomposed, but a ring found nearby proves to be a first clue that reopens an infamous case of kidnapping involving one of Venice’s most aristocratic families. Only Commissario Brunetti can unravel the clues and find his way into both the heart of patrician Venice and that of a family grieving for their abducted son.

Fatal Remedies

Donna Leon’s multitude of fans around the world has grown with each new Commissario Brunetti novel, and now mystery lovers in the United States can enjoy another compelling episode. In Fatal Remedies, Brunetti’s career is under threat when his professional and personal lives unexpectedly intersect. In the chill of the Venetian dawn, a sudden act of vandalism shatters the quiet of the deserted city, and Brunetti is shocked to find that the culprit waiting to be apprehended at the scene is a member of his own family. Meanwhile, he is also under pressure from his superiors to solve a daring robbery with connections to a suspicious accidental death. Could the two crimes be connected? And will Brunetti be able to prove his family’s innocence before it’s too late?

Friends in High Places

The winner of the Crime Writers Association Macallan Silver Dagger available for the first time in the United States

Donna Leon’s sophisticated Commissario Brunetti series has won her legions of fans over the years. In Friends in High Places, Brunetti is visited by a young bureaucrat investigating the lack of official approval for the building of Brunetti s apartment years before. What began as a red tape headache ends in murder when the bureaucrat is found dead after a mysterious fall from a scaffold. Brunetti starts an investigation that will take him into unfamiliar and dangerous areas of Venetian life, and will reveal, once again, what a difference it makes to have Friends in High Places.

A Sea of Troubles

Commissario Brunetti finds himself adrift in his tenth investigation available for the first time in the United StatesDona Leon has amased devoted fans around the world for her atmospheric and intelligent Commissario Brunetti series. A Sea of Troubles offers a rare glimpse into the scrupulous Commissario’s personal life. When Brunetti investigates the murder of two local fishermen on the island of Pellestrina, the small community closes ranks, forcing him to accept Signorina Elettra’s offer to visit her relatives there to search for clues. Though loyal to his beloved wife, Paola, he must admit that less than platonic emotions underlie his concern for his boss’s beautiful secretary. Suspenseful, provocative, and deeply unsettling, A Sea of Troubles is an explosive and irresistible addition to Leon’s marvelous series.

Wilful Behaviour

When one of his wife Paola’s students comes to visit him, with a strange and vague interest in investigating the possibility of a pardon for a crime committed by her grandfather many years ago, Commissario Brunetti thinks little of it, beyond being intrigued and attracted by the girl’s intelligence and moral seriousness. But when the girl is found dead, clearly stabbed to death, Claudia Leonardo suddenly becomes Brunetti’s case, no longer Paola’s student. Claudia seems to have no discernible living family her only familial relationship is with an elderly Austrian woman, who was the lover of her grandfather, but was not herself Claudia’s grandmother. Brunetti is both intrigued and stunned by the extraordinary art collection the old woman keeps in her small, unprepossessing flat, and when she in turn is found dead, the case seems to have be about to open up long buried secrets of collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews during the war, secrets few in Italy are happy to explore…

Uniform Justice

As Uniform Justice opens, Venetian detective Commissario Guido Brunetti is called to investigate a parent’s worst nightmare. A young cadet has been found hanged, a presumed suicide, in Venice’s elite military academy. Brunetti’s sorrow for the boy, so close in age to his own son, is rivaled only by his contempt for a community that is more concerned with protecting the reputation of the school and its privileged students than understanding this tragedy. The young man is the son of a doctor and former politician, a man of an impeccable integrity all too rare in Italian politics. Dr. Moro is clearly and understandably devastated by his son’s death; but while both he and his apparently estranged wife seem convinced that the boy’s death could not have been suicide, neither appears eager to talk to the police or involve Brunetti in any investigation of the circumstances in which he died. As Brunetti pursues his inquiry, he is faced with a wall of silence. Is the military protecting its own? And what of the other witnesses? Is this the natural reluctance of Italians to involve themselves with the authorities, or is Brunetti facing a conspiracy far greater than this one death?

Doctored Evidence

Donna Leon’s riveting new novel, Doctored Evidence, follows Commissario Guido Brunetti down the winding streets of contemporary Venice as he throws open the doors of a case his superiors would rather leave closed. When a miserly spinster is found brutally murdered in her Venice apartment, police immediately suspect her Romanian housekeeper. They are certain their job is done after the immigrant dies while fleeing arrest, but weeks later; a neighbor comes forward to defend the innocence of the accused. The only investigator who believes the alibi is Brunetti, who will have to go behind the backs of his superiors to vindicate the Romanian and find her employer’s actual killer. As always, the indispensable hacking skills of the ever loyal Signorina Elettra are the perfect complement to Brunetti’s meticulous detective work. She discovers mysterious deposits in the old woman’s bank account, but who made them? As Brunetti investigates, his wife, at home, reads him teachings on the Seven Deadly Sins. In a modern world of intrigue and nebulous morality, how do they relate to the murder at hand? Doctored Evidence is charged with suspense and evokes a contemporary Venice with Donna Leon’s masterful flair.

Blood from a Stone

On a cold Venetian night just before Christmas, an African street vendor is killed in a scuffle. The only witnesses are tourists who had been browsing the man’s wares before his death. Arriving on the scene, Commissario Brunetti wonders why anyone would kill a ‘vu cumpra,’ an African purveying goods past normal shop hours and without a work permit. When Brunetti digs deeper into the investigation, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake within the immigrant society. Warned by his superior to resist further involvement in the case, Brunetti becomes even more determined to unearth the truth behind this mysterious killing. How far will he penetrate the murky subculture of the Venetian underworld? Read by David Colacci.

Through a Glass, Darkly

Donna Leon opens doors to the hidden Venice like no one else. With her latest novel, Through a Glass, Darkly, Leon takes us inside the secretive island of Murano, home of the world famous glass factories. On a luminous spring day in Venice, Commissario Brunetti and his assistant Vianello play hooky from the Questura in order to help Vianello’s friend Marco Ribetti, arrested during an environmental protest. They secure his release, only to be faced by the fury of the man’s father in law, Giovanni De Cal, a cantankerous glass factory owner who has been heard in the bars of Murano making violent threats about Ribetti. Brunetti’s curiosity is piqued, and he finds himself drawn to Murano to investigate. Is De Cal the type of man to carry out his threats? Then one morning the body of De Cal’s night watchman is found. Over long lunches, on secret boat rides, in quiet bars, and down narrow streets, Brunetti searches for the killer. Will he unravel the clues before the night watchman’s death is allowed to be forgotten?

A fascinating novel set in the intersection between tourism and native Venetian society, Through a Glass, Darkly is Donna Leon at her finest.

Suffer the Little Children

Donna Leon’s charming, evocative, and addictive Commissario Guido Brunetti series continues with Suffer the Little Children. When Commissario Brunetti is summoned in the middle of the night to the hospital bed of a senior pediatrician, he is confronted with more questions than answers. Three men a young Carabiniere captain and two privates from out of town have burst into the doctor’s apartment in the middle of the night, attacked him and taken away his eighteenth month old baby boy. What could have motivated an assault by the forces of the state so violent it has left the doctor mute? Who would have authorized such an alarming operation? At the same time, Brunetti s colleague Inspector Vianello discovers a money making scam between pharmacists and doctors in the city. But it appears as if one of the pharmacists is after more than money. Donna Leon’s new novel is as subtle and fascinating as ever, set in a beautifully realized Venice, a glorious city seething with small town vice.

The Girl of His Dreams

Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries have won legions of fans for their evocative portraits of Venetian life. In her novels, food, family, art, history, and local politics play as central a role as an unsolved crime. In The Girl of His Dreams when a friend of Brunetti s brother, a priest recently returned from years of missionary work, calls with a request, Brunetti suspects the man s motives. A new, American style Protestant sect has begun to meet in the city, and it s possible the priest is merely apprehensive of the competition. But the preacher could also be fleecing his growing flock, so Brunetti and Paola, along with Inspector Vianello and his wife, go undercover.

But the investigation has to be put aside when, one cold and rainy morning, a body is found floating in a canal. It is a child, a gypsy girl. Brunetti suspects she fell off a nearby roof while fleeing an apartment she had robbed. He has to inform the distrustful parents, encamped on the mainland, and soon finds himself haunted by the crime and the girl. Thought provoking, eye opening, and profoundly moving, The Girl of His Dreams is classic Donna Leon, a spectacular, heart wrenching addition to the series.

About Face

Donna Leon’s eighteen novels have won her countless fans, heaps of critical acclaim, and a place among the top ranks of international crime writers. Through the warm hearted, perceptive, and principled Commissario Guido Brunetti, Leon s best selling books have explored Venice in all its aspects: history, tourism, high culture, food, family, but also violent crime and political corruption. In About Face, Leon returns to one of her signature subjects: the environment, which has reached a crisis in Italy. Incinerators across the south of Italy are at full capacity, burning who knows what and releasing unacceptable levels of dangerous air pollutants, while in Naples, enormous garbage piles grow in the streets. In Venice, with the polluted waters of the canals and a major chemical complex across the lagoon, the issue is never far from the fore. Environmental concerns become significant in Brunetti s work when an investigator from the Carabiniere, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage, asks for a favor. But the investigator is not the only one with a special request. His father in law needs help and a mysterious woman comes into the picture. Brunetti soon finds himself in the middle of an investigation into murder and corruption more dangerous than anything he s seen before.

A Question of Belief

With his hometown beset by hordes of tourists and baking under a glaring sun, Commissario Guido Brunetti’s greatest wish is to go to the mountains with his family, where he can sleep under a down comforter and catch up on his reading of history. But before he can go on vacation, he has police work to do. A folder with court records has landed on his desk, brought by an old friend. It appears that certain cases at the local court hardly known as a model of efficiency are being delayed to the benefit of one of the parties. A creative new trick for corrupting the system, perhaps, but what can Brunetti do about it? At the same time, Brunetti is doing a favor for his colleague, Inspector Lorenzo Vianello. The inspector s aunt has taken a strong interest in astrology and has been regularly withdrawing large amounts of cash from the bank. But she won t listen to her family, and Vianello doesn t know what to do. Brunetti agrees to help. He assigns the Questura s new recruits, who need training in following a suspect through Venice s complicated streets, to see where the money is going. And just when it looks like Brunetti will be able to get away for his well earned rest, a shocking, violent crime forces him to shake off the heat and get down to work.

Drawing Conclusions

Nearly twenty years ago, when a conductor was poisoned and the Questura sent a man to investigate, readers first met Commissario Guido Brunetti. Since 1992’s Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon and her shrewd, sophisticated, and compassionate investigator have been delighting readers around the world. For her millions of fans, Leon s novels have opened a window into the private Venice of her citizens, a world of incomparable beauty, family intimacy, shocking crime, and insidious corruption. This internationally acclaimed, bestselling series is widely considered one of the best ever written, and Atlantic Monthly Press is thrilled to be publishing the twentieth installment, Drawing Conclusions, this spring. 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 t 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 neighbor, 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.

Beastly Things

When the body of man is found in a canal, damaged by the tides, carrying no wallet, and wearing only one shoe, Brunetti has little to work with. No local has filed a missing person report, and no hotel guests have disappeared. Where was the crime scene? And how can Brunetti identify the man when he can t show pictures of his face? The autopsy shows a way forward: it turns out the man was suffering from a rare, disfiguring disease. With Inspector Vianello, Brunetti canvas*ses shoe stores, and winds up on the mainland in Mestre, outside of his usual sphere. From a shopkeeper, they learn that the man had a kindly way with animals. At the same time, animal rights and meat consumption are quickly becoming preoccupying issues at the Venice Questura, and in Brunetti’s home, where conversation at family meals offer a window into the joys and conflicts of Italian life. Perhaps with the help of Signorina Elettra, Brunetti and Vianello can identify the man and understand why someone wanted him dead. As subtle and engrossing as ever, Leon s Beastly Things is immensely enjoyable, intriguing, and ultimately moving.

Brunetti’s Cookbook

Among their many pleasures, Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti novels have long been celebrated for their mouth watering descriptions of food. Multicourse lunches at home with Paola and the children, snacks grabbed at a bar with a glass of wine or two, a quick sandwich during a busy day, or a working lunch at a neighborhood trattoria in the course of an investigation have all delighted Brunetti, as well as Leon s readers and reviewers. And then there s the coffee, the pastries, the wine, and the grappa. In Brunetti s Cookbook, Donna Leon s best friend and favorite cook brings to life these fabulous Venetian meals. Eggplant crostini, orrechiette with asparagus, pumpkin ravioli, roasted artichokes, baked branzino, pork ragu with porcini these are just a few of the over ninety recipes for antipasti, primi, secondi, and dolci. The recipes are joined by excerpts from the novels, four color illustrations, and six original essays by Donna Leon on food and life in Venice. Charming, insightful, and full of personality, they are the perfect addition to this long awaited book.

Handel’s Bestiary: In Search of Animals in Handel’s Operas

When acclaimed novelist Donna Leon is not conjuring up tales of crime and corruption in Venice, or reveling in delicious cuisine, she is listening to music. For Leon, patron of conductor Alan Curtis and his celebrated orchestra Il Complesso Barocco, that usually means the work of her favorite composer, George Frideric Handel. Over the years, Leon has noticed that the great musician filled his operas with arias that make reference to animals; rich in symbolism, the perceived virtues and vices of the lion, bee, nightingale, snake, elephant, and tiger, among others, resonate in his works. In Handel’s Bestiary, Leon draws on her love of Handel and her expertise in medieval bestiaries illustrated collections of animal stories to assemble a bestiary of her own. Twelve chapters trace twelve animals through history, mythology, and the arias. Each is joined by whimsical original illustrations by German painter Michael Sowa, and an accompanying CD includes each aria, expertly recorded by Il Complesso Barocco. A fascinating, utterly original book, Handel s Bestiary springs to life with Leon s knowledge, passion, and wit.

Venetian Curiosities

In a city as ancient as Venice, myths and legends passed down from generation to generation are the storehouse of a city’s mores, emblems of its identity. In Venetian Curiosities, acclaimed novelist Donna Leon recounts some of Venice s most intriguing tales: an elephant brought in for Carnival wreaks havoc upon the city before seeking refuge in a church; the city employs prostitutes in an attempt to prevent homosexuality; innocent men are mistakenly condemned to death; a gambler bets the family palazzo. In an introduction and seven essays, Leon offers enchanting details and astute insights into Venetian customs of the past and present. Venetian Curiosities is beautifully illustrated, and like Handel s Bestiary, it comes with an accompanying CD. Here the music is by Antonio Vivaldi, with tracks for each section of the book, expertly recorded by Il Complesso Barocco. With the splendid music, the delightful images, and the perceptive, amusing words of Donna Leon, Venetian Curiosities is a harmonious exploration of one of the world s most beloved cities.

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