This is the first time I've read the one that started them all. I can't remember when I read my first Commissario Brunetti mystery, but I loved them from the start. First and foremost, they are set in Venice and La Serenissima is most definitely a presence. From the vaporetti to the feral cats, Leon captures the essence of the city until you can almost smell the sea. To do this, he has to dig into Wellauer's past and try to figure out what kind of man he was. This takes many chapters, and lots of interviews over the phone and in restaurants with a variety of people who worked with the conductor over the years. The pace moves slowly, and there are very few major plot-twisting revelations until the very end, where everything suddenly speeds up and I kept expecting Brunetti to put on his sunglasses and tell someone that This Shit Just Got Real. A slow burner with a satisfying ending. Venice itself is as important a character in this book than any of the human ones. It is beautifully described without romanticising it. We’re shown the beauty and the ugliness in equal measure.

Death at La Fenice (1992), the first novel by American academic and crime-writer Donna Leon, is the first of the internationally best-selling Commissario Brunetti mystery series, set in Venice, Italy. The novel won the Japanese Suntory prize, [1] and its sequel is Death in a Strange Country (1993). The worst crime novel I read.....and one of the worst books I've read. It's a caricature of a novel. It's so bad, I felt it is an insult to books- even the most trashy writing is way better and can at least be considered a guilty pleasure. Here you feel the guilt for reading this, but no pleasure. It's guilty torture. On some level, it fascinates me how someone can write this badly. It fascinates me more than the fact that this book got published and read. In a way, reading this book was educational. Being able to write this badly has to be an accomplishment of some sort. I've never seen anyone mess up...every possible aspect of the book. Although the story shows its age in some ways, I found the mystery to be a solid whodunit and the characters, especially Brunetti and his wife, quite intriguing. Naturally, as one can guess, I really loved the Italian setting and the author’s descriptions of Venice, which gave the story a unique atmosphere. The writing style and the pacing make this novel a wonderful read. Leon does an excellent job of making the reader feel like they are part of the case. The mystery has a lot of twists and a bunch of fun characters that make it feel real. That is why it is hard to believe that Leon wrote the novel “as a joke.”Heald, Tim. “Donna Leon talks about corruption and death in Venice: interview.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 7 May 2009.

But as police procedurals - and first books in series in particular - go, this is a very accomplished read. There isn't the full complement of characters at the Questura as yet: Patta is there but there's no Ispettore Vianello, Lieutenant Scarpa or Signorina Elletra and apart from Patta the other staff at the Questura are two dimensional: it's Brunetti and the city of Venice who carry this story. Even Brunetti's wife Paola hasn't yet grown into her full glory. This is the first book in the long running Commissario Brunetti series. I’ve been curious about Donna Leon for ages but have never gotten around to sampling any of her work. This book is available in the Kindle Unlimited program, at the moment, giving me a great excuse to finally see for myself why this series has endured. this low-key and humane Venice-set detective yarn surprised me. not so much at the solving of the murder mystery (although I was surprised), but at how it all came together in such an organic way. the emphasis on family, children, little girls... the importance of doing the right thing even if it is not necessarily the legal thing... no spoilers here, but the end really brought things together in a way that made perfect emotional sense. all of the small everyday moments, the details that aren't important to the case but are important to what is being said, what finally happens... the whole point of the book. I love a holistic novel. Yes, you read that right. A friend of hers suggested she try a crime novel and Leon did just that. After she completed it, she stashed it away. She submitted it for the Suntory prize in Japan and ended up winning and was offered a two-book contract by Harper Collins. That is why this turned into a series and more books about the detective followed. Turning, the artistic director fumbled at the curtain, unable for a moment to find the opening through which he had come. Disembodied hands parted the curtain from behind, and he slipped through, finding himself in the bare garret where Violetta was soon to die. From out in front, he heard the tentative. applause that greeted the substitute conductor as he took his place on the podium.

Coming up: Antonio Muñoz Molina

The series features Commissario Guido Brunetti, family man, modest, moral, loyal and philosophical detective extraordinaire.