Acqua Alta

Donna Leon

Jan 2009 · A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery Book 5 · Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

About this ebook

“A dramatic and deeply satisfying climax . . . a high-stakes mystery in which the setting vibrates with as much life as the story itself.” —Publishers Weekly
 
As Venice braces for a winter tempest, intrepid Italian sleuth Commissario Guido Brunetti finds out that an archaeologist and old friend has been savagely beaten at the palazzo home of opera singer Flavia Petrelli.
 
Then, as the floodwaters rise, the corpse of a museum director is discovered—and Brunetti must wade through the chaotic city to solve his deadliest case yet.
 
“An evocative peep into the dark underworld of the beauteous city.” —Time Out London
 
“A superb police detective.” —Library Journal
 
Also published under the title Death in High Water

Ratings and reviews

law-enforcement, murder, murder-investigation, museum, art-fraud, art-theft, artifact, Venice, family-dynamics, friendship***** Acqua alta is the term used in Veneto for the exceptional tide peaks that occur periodically in the northern Adriatic Sea. Exceptional is right! Add relentless rain to the phenomenon in Venice and you have a situation where the water outside can reach knee level and calf level in the entryways. Amid this, there is the severe beating of a renowned expert of Chinese pottery artifacts (known from a previous case to Commissario Brunetti) in her own home, and soon thereafter the murder of the director of a prominent local museum. Another convoluted tale of murder in a very unique city and the solid police work (and a little sneaky stuff, too) by the Commissario. 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!

Leon's usual passion and clarity kept me interested and charmed.

Very easy

About the author

Donna Leon is the author of the internationally bestselling Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery series. The winner of the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, among other awards, Leon was born in New Jersey and has lived in Venice for thirty years.