by Donna Leon
Part of Commissario Brunetti, book 23
First published 2014
Commissario Guido Brunetti receives an urgent call from a prestigious Venetian library director. Someone has torn pages from several rare books. The evidence points to an American professor from Kansas who requested the volumes. The professor has vanished, and his credentials prove fake. Brunetti questions staff and patrons as suspects accumulate. The case takes a deadly turn when a theologian who spent three years studying early Christian texts at the library is found murdered. The killing forces Brunetti to examine his assumptions about guilt and innocence. Books drive this investigation in ways they never have before in the series. The Brunetti family conversations that readers know well continue to explore art and literature. Venice provides its usual backdrop as Brunetti navigates the politics and morality that define contemporary Italian culture.
Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, thriller, detective, academic
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, investigation, mystery
Setting: Italy, Kansas, Venice
Period: Contemporary
237 pages · Hardcover · Atlantic Monthly Press