Doctored Evidence (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries) [Paperback]

Donna Leon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 2010 | Series: Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries

Against the atmospheric backdrop of the city of Venice, Brunetti finds himself fighting a lone battle to prove the innocence of a Romanian housekeeper accused of brutally murdering her miserly employer. With the odds stacked against her from the onset of the investigation when she fled from police, her guilt seems a fait accompli...until a neighbor comes forward to protest the innocence of the accused. Stealthily working his way through the labyrinthine alleys of Venice, death nipping at his heels, Brunetti will have to defy his superiors to vindicate the housekeeper and stop her employer's real killer before he murders again.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

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).

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (January 26, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143117084
• ISBN-13: 978-0143117087
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More 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. Leon has received both the CWA Macallon Silver Dagger for Fiction and the German Corrine Prize for her novels featuring Commisario Guido Brunetti. She lives in Venice.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A reprint of the 2005 Doctored Evidence, October 9, 2010

By 

Fenimore "voracious reader of eclectica" (Mountain Deserts of Southwest US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doctored Evidence (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries) (Paperback)

Did you like Doctored Evidence published in March 2005? This is the reprinted edition.

This is the story of the Romanian maid who (allegedly) kills her elderly employer and makes a dash for the border with a forged passport and scads of cash. Just as she is about to be apprehended, the maid made a run for it -- into the path of an oncoming train where the maid made a big splash (so to speak). But the case doesn't end there; it STARTS there. Our beloved Comissario finds that the maid could not possibly have had time to kill her employer and make the dash; the cash is not stolen; and there's more than meets the eye.

Isn't this always the case with Donna Leon's mysteries? Isn't this why we love to read them? This is a top notch crime book - a really good murder mystery and the ever charming Guido Brunetti just makes it all the better.

Definitely worth reading.

5.0 out of 5 stars Doctored Evidence, April 8, 2011

By 

Dorothy C. Loutfy - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Doctored Evidence (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries) (Paperback)

I love all of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti novels. Pretty even in quality, always literate and entertaining. The very BEST one so far of 12 novels that I have read is "Acqua Alta". Full of welcome details about Guido and Paolo's private life. I envy them their family meals - sounds like Paolo is a great cook. Healthful, too. Am parceling out the remaining books, though, and am grateful that Ms. Leon is such a prolific as well as talented, literate, humorous, clever, and often riveting writer.