Death at La Fenice
Donna Leon. HarperCollins Publishers, $19 (263pp) ISBN 978-0-06-016871-1
A breathless beginning and an unexpected lack of reference to the lush setting mark this lively launch of a projected series of Venetian mysteries. When legendary German conductor Helmut Wellauer is found dead in his dressing room two acts into a performance of La Traviata , police commissario Guido Brunetti is called in. Among those who might have provided the cyanide poison that killed the maestro, immediate suspects include the vaunted conductor's coolly indifferent young wife and those many in the music industry who are offended by his homophobia. Methodically probing into the victim's past, Brunetti also uncovers Wellauer's Nazi sympathies and a lead to a trio of singing sisters from yesteryear--one now destitute, one dead and the other missing. Though burdened by a dictatorial superior and two lumpen subordinates, Brunetti gets help from his aristocratic wife and her well-connected parents. The narrative's best moments involve Brunetti's wry exchanges with his colleagues and the cunningly masked, obvious solution. (July)
Details
Reviewed on: 06/29/1992
Genre: Fiction
Hardcover - 270 pages - 978-0-434-01253-4
Mass Market Paperbound - 288 pages - 978-0-06-104337-6
Open Ebook - 288 pages - 978-0-8021-9413-8
Paperback - 288 pages - 978-0-06-074068-9
Paperback - 320 pages - 978-0-7862-5107-0
Paperback - 338 pages - 978-0-09-953656-7
Paperback - 288 pages - 978-0-06-214708-0
Paperback - 352 pages - 978-1-5291-5830-4