Death and Judgment

Donna Leon

Dec 2019 · A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery Book 4 · Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

About this ebook

Venice's Commissario Brunetti takes on his "most difficult and politically sensitive case to date" in the gripping New York Times–bestselling series ( Booklist ).

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.

"No one is more graceful and accomplished than Leon." — The Washington Post

"The sophisticated but still moral Brunetti, with his love of food and his loving family, proves a worthy custodian of timeless values and verities." — The Wall Street Journal

"[Brunetti's] humane police work is disarming, and his ambles through the city are a delight." — The New York Times Book Review

"The heady atmosphere of Venice and a galaxy of fully realized characters enrich this intriguing and finally horrifying tale." — Publishers Weekly

"The first of Leon's books to knit together all her strengths: endearing detective, jaundiced social pathology, and a paranoid eye for plotting on a grand scale." — Kirkus Reviews

Ratings and reviews

Venice, Italy, murder, murder-investigation, political-corruption, family-dynamics, friendship, trafficking***** This time Brunetti not only has to work on murders but also fraud, trafficking, his own family, and overweening superiors. A disturbing tale with a similar attitude to Commissario Montalbano of Sicily. Narrator David Colacci has the trick of using American standard Italian and Sicilian accents to differentiate the multiple male characters down to a science. Bravissimo!

About the author

Donna Leon was born on September 29, 1942 in Montclair, New Jersey. She taught English literature in England, Switzerland, Iran, China, Italy and Saudi Arabia. She is the author of a Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery series. Friends in High Places, a novel from the series, won the Crime Writers Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction in 2000. German Television has produced 16 Commissario Brunetti mysteries for broadcast. She was a crime reviewer for the Sunday Times. She has written the libretto for a comic opera and has set up her own opera company, Il Complesso Barocco. Her titles Jewels of Pardise, The Golden Egg, By Its Cover, Falling in Love and The Waters of Eternal Youth made The New York Times Bestseller List.