Death and Judgment (Guido Brunetti Series #4)

by Donna Leon

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555848972
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/14/2014
Series:	Guido Brunetti Series , #4
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	10,063
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

A New Yorker of Irish/Spanish descent, Donna Leon first went to Italy in 1965, returning regularly over the next decade or so while pursuing a career as an academic in the States and then later in Iran, China and finally Saudi Arabia. It was after a period in Saudi Arabia, which she found ‘damaging physically and spiritually’ that Donna decided to move to Venice, where she has now lived for over twenty years.

Her debut as a crime fiction writer began as a joke: talking in a dressing room in Venice’s opera-house La Fenice after a performance, Donna and a singer friend were vilifying a particular German conductor. From the thought ‘why don’t we kill him?’ and discussion of when, where and how, the idea for Death at La Fenice took shape, and was completed over the next four months.

Donna Leon is the crime reviewer for the London Sunday Times and is an opera expert. She has written the libretto for a comic opera, entitled Dona Gallina. Set in a chicken coop, and making use of existing baroque music, Donna Gallina was premiered in Innsbruck. Brigitte Fassbaender, one of the great mezzo-sopranos of our time, and now head of the Landestheater in Innsbruck, agreed to come out of retirement both to direct the opera and to play the part of the witch Azuneris (whose name combines the names of the two great Verdi villainesses Azucena and Amneris).

Hometown:

Venice, Italy

Date of Birth:

February 28, 1942

Place of Birth:

Montclair, New Jersey

Education:

B.A., 1964; M.A. 1969; postgraduate work in English literature

Table of Contents

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Another captivating mystery featuring "the most humane sleuth since Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

The sophisticated but still moral Brunetti ... proves a worthy custodian of timeless values and verities. (The Wall Street Journal)

No one is more graceful and accomplished than Leon. (The Washington Post)

Editorial Reviews

The heady atmosphere of Venice and a galaxy of fully realized characters enrich this intriguing and finally horrifying tale, the fourth featuring Guido Brunetti, the stalwart and worldly Commissioner of Police in Venice. Shortly after the bodies of eight women are found near a truck that has been in a mountainside accident, Brunetti begins to investigate the shooting death of attorney Carlo Trevisan, counselor to influential industrialists and bankers. Two days later an accountant for politically active manufacturers is found murdered in his car. Both men, Brunetti discovers, had been placing calls to Eastern Europe, Ecuador and Thailand from a pay phone in a disreputable bar in Padua. Probing for more information, Brunetti relies on unique sources: his boss's secretary, who is particularly adept at using computers; a judge who owes him a favor; even his sergeant's wife, who raises gossip to an art form. Brunetti's wife, a professor of English, and his teenaged daughter offer invaluable aid. With consummate skill, Leon (Dressed for Death) gradually reveals the broad reaches of a corrupt network linking the privileged and powerful. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

eon's Italian cop, Guido Brunetti, is a complex man who loves his family and his work despite his jaded outlook. His multifaceted personality combines a humorously lugubrious melancholy, a rapier-sharp wit, a gentle heart, and a keen mind, which makes him not only a fine detective, but also an engaging hero. In her fourth story in the series, Leon presents Brunetti with his most difficult and politically sensitive case to date. High-powered lawyer Carlo Trevisan is found shot to death on the PaduaVenice train. The police write it off as a robbery gone bad, but Brunetti isn't so sure. When an accountant who worked for Trevisan is found dead a short time later, Brunetti sees a connection, which eventually leads him to an international drug and prostitution ring run by some of Venice's most influential citizens. Leon isn't well known is this country, but she should be. She's a superbly gifted writer whose stories are complex and filled with charm, humor, and intelligence. Do readers a favor and put her books on the shelf.

Emily Melton

Another captivating mystery featuring "the most humane sleuth since Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

The sophisticated but still moral Brunetti ... proves a worthy custodian of timeless values and verities. (The Wall Street Journal)

No one is more graceful and accomplished than Leon. (The Washington Post)

From the Publisher