Fatal Remedies

Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 1555849016
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
The Italian police detective’s latest case hits close to home, in this novel in the New York Times–bestselling series. For Commissario Brunetti, it began with an early morning phone call. In the chill of the Venetian dawn, a sudden act of vandalism shatters the quiet of the deserted city. But Brunetti is shocked to find that the culprit waiting to be apprehended at the scene is someone from his own family. Meanwhile, Brunetti is under pressure from his superiors to solve a daring robbery with a link to a suspicious accidental death. Does it all lead back to the Mafia? And how are his family’s actions connected to these crimes? The truth must be uncovered in this novel in the Silver Dagger Award–winning series by “one of the best of the international crime writers” (Rocky Mountain News). “Leon’s devoted readers love her books for their juicy mystery plots, and also for the rich and varied cast of recurring characters, among which is the city of Venice itself.” —Publishers Weekly

Death at La Fenice

Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802194133
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Book Description
A conductor succumbs to cyanide at the famed Venice opera house, in the first mystery in the New York Times–bestselling, award-winning series. During intermission at the famed La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, a notoriously difficult and widely disliked German conductor is poisoned—and suspects abound. Guido Brunetti, a native Venetian, sets out to unravel the mystery behind the high-profile murder. To do so, he calls on his knowledge of Venice, its culture, and its dirty politics. Along the way, he finds the crime may have roots going back decades—and that revenge, corruption, and even Italian cuisine may play a role. “One of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever.” —The Washington Post “A brilliant writer . . . an immensely likable police detective who takes every murder to heart.” —The New York Times Book Review

The Royal Art of Poison

Author: Eleanor Herman
Publisher: Prelude Books
ISBN: 071565313X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Book Description
The story of poison is the story of power... For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family’s spoons, tried on their underpants and tested their chamber pots. Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications and filthy living conditions. Women wore makeup made with lead. Men rubbed feces on their bald spots. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. Gazing at gorgeous portraits of centuries past, we don’t see what lies beneath the royal robes and the stench of unwashed bodies; the lice feasting on private parts; and worms nesting in the intestines. The Royal Art of Poison is a hugely entertaining work of popular history that traces the use of poison as a political - and cosmetic - tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today.

Quietly in Their Sleep

Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 1555849059
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 359

Book Description
A nun has left her convent after a series of suspicious deaths: “Leon’s novels are always a pleasure.” —The Washington Post In Venice, Italy, Commissario Guido Brunetti comes to the aid of a young Catholic sister, who has left her convent after five of her nursing home patients died unexpectedly. In the course of his inquiries, Brunetti encounters an unusual cast of characters, but discovers nothing that seems criminal. The police detective must determine whether the nun is simply creating a smoke screen to justify abandoning her vocation—or if she has stumbled onto something very real and very sinister that places her own life in imminent danger. “Leon’s books shimmer in the grace of their setting and are warmed by the charm of their characters.” —The New York Times Book Review Also published under the title The Death of Faith

Death in a Strange Country

Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 1555848982
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
The New York Times–bestselling series continues with the murder of an American soldier in Venice: “This is definitely an author to watch (Kirkus Reviews). Early one morning, Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice police confronts a grisly sight when the body of a young man is fished out of a fetid canal. All clues point to a violent mugging, but for Brunetti the motive of robbery seems altogether too convenient. When something discovered in the victim’s apartment suggests the existence of a high-level conspiracy, Brunetti becomes convinced that somebody, somewhere, is taking great pains to provide a ready-made solution to the crime. Rich with atmosphere and marvelous plotting, Death in a Strange Country is a superb novel in Donna Leon’s chilling Venetian mystery series. Praise for Donna Leon and the Commissario Brunetti Mysteries “One of the best international crime writers is Donna Leon, and her Commissario Guido Brunetti tales set in Venice are at the apex of continental thrillers.” —Rocky Mountain News “Leon’s books shimmer in the grace of their setting and are warmed by the charm of her characters.” —The New York Times Book Review “Brunetti . . . long ago joined the ranks of the classic fictional detectives.” —Evening Standard “Commissario Brunetti, most charismatic current Euro-cop, uncovers deadly ants’ nest of corruption. A highly accomplished, scary read.” —The Guardian

Lethal Remedies

Author: M. Louisa Locke
Publisher: M. Louisa Locke
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Book Description
San Francisco 1882: Annie has a problem. She has a beautiful child, a loving husband, a well-run boardinghouse with a supportive circle of friends and family, but she’s feeling restless and unhappy. Dr. Charlotte Brown, the doctor who delivered Annie’s baby, has a different problem. The Pacific Dispensary for Women and Children, the clinic and hospital she co-founded, is being threatened by financial and legal difficulties caused by the mysterious illness of a former patient. When Annie takes up the challenge to help Dr. Brown and the dispensary, she will discover that getting back into the business of investigating crimes is exactly the remedy she requires. Lethal Remedies is the seventh novel in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and comes after Scholarly Pursuits.

A Noble Radiance

Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 1555849040
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 311

Book Description
Commissario Brunetti delves into the shadows of a Venetian family’s past in this “gripping intellectual mystery” in the New York Times–bestselling series (Publishers Weekly). In A Noble Radiance, a new landowner is summoned urgently to his house not far from Venice when workmen accidentally unearth a macabre grave. The human corpse is badly decomposed, but a ring found nearby proves to be a clue that reopens an infamous case of kidnapping involving one of Venice’s most aristocratic families. Only Commissario Brunetti can unravel the clues and find his way into both the hearts of patrician Venice and that of a family grieving for their abducted son. “Goes a long way to confirming Donna Leon’s claim to have taken literary possession of Venice . . . A Noble Radiance gives the reader a delightful foretaste of the summer holidays to come, but it also offers much more than that.” —The Independent on Sunday “The marvel of this book is that almost every detail on every page forms part of a succession of clues, planted with exquisite precision, to unraveling the mystery.” —The Sunday Times “Brunetti emerges as an intelligent, somewhat world-weary individual who believes in his cause if not the system itself. In short, he’s the ideal protagonist for this culturally rich mystery.” —Publishers Weekly “In her detective novels with Commissario Brunetti, Donna Leon can paralyze the reader with a joyful suspense, lost in the environs of Venice and hopelessly in love with her central character and his wife.” —Mail on Sunday

Friends in High Places

Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 1555849024
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Book Description
“By far the best” in the New York Times–bestselling, Macallan Silver Dagger–winning series featuring Venetian detective Commissario Brunetti (Evening Standard). In this vivid and atmospheric mystery, Commissario Brunetti is visited by a young bureaucrat investigating the lack of official approval for the construction of Brunetti’s apartment years before. What began as a red tape headache ends in murder when the bureaucrat is later found dead after a mysterious fall from a scaffold. Brunetti starts an investigation that will take him into the unfamiliar and dangerous areas of drug abuse and loan-sharking, and will reveal, once again, what a difference it makes in Venice to have friends in high places. “Beautifully written and immaculately plotted, Friends in High Places is further proof still that Leon can do no wrong.” —Scotsman “Carefully plotted and full of colorful as well as sinister characters, this is crime writing of the highest order: powerful, relevant and all too full of human failings.” —The Guardian “Leon tells the story as if she loves Venice as much as her detective does, warts and all. The plot and subplots unfold elegantly; beauty and the beast march hand in hand, and the result is rich entertainment.” —The Sunday Times (London) “Leon’s best so far . . . I don’t think I could really understand a crime fan who didn’t love Donna Leon.” —Scotland on Sunday “Leon is a skillful plotter . . . Brunetti is a nicely shaded creation, a moral man who is also all too human. Friends in High Places is a splendid read, clever and provoking.” —Observer (UK)

Earthly Remains

Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802189458
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
A moody mystery set in Italy from the New York Times–bestselling author: “One of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever.” —The Washington Post Guido Brunetti has to deal every day with crimes big and small, suffocating corruption, and a never-ending influx of tourists. But at least he gets to do it in Venice, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In this mystery in the bestselling series, the police commissioner’s endurance will truly be tested. During an interrogation of an entitled, arrogant man suspected of giving drugs to a young girl, Brunetti acts rashly, doing something he will quickly come to regret. In the fallout, he realizes that he needs a break. Granted leave from the Questura, he accompanies his wife to a villa on Sant’Erasmo, one of the largest islands in the laguna. There he intends to pass his days rowing, and his nights reading Pliny’s Natural History. That is until the caretaker of the house, a widowed beekeeper, goes missing following a sudden storm, and Brunetti must set aside his leave of absence and understand what happened to a man who had become a friend. From a Silver Dagger Award–winning author, this is a poignant novel featuring Guido Brunetti, “a superb police detective—calm, deliberate, and insightful” (Library Journal).

The Waters of Eternal Youth

Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802190316
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
The twenty-fifth mystery in the New York Times–bestselling series “is cause for celebration. . . . Leon brilliantly exposes the corrupt world of Venice” (Bay Area Reporter). At a fundraising dinner for a Venetian charity, a wealthy and aristocratic patroness asks Brunetti if he will investigate the fifteen-year-old attempted drowning of her granddaughter, which left the girl irreparably brain damaged. Brunetti’s not sure what to do, but out of a mixture of curiosity, pity, and a willingness to fulfill the wishes of a guilt-wracked older woman—who happens to be his mother-in-law’s best friend—he agrees. Brunetti soon finds himself unable to let the case rest, if indeed there is a case. Awash in the haunting story of a woman trapped in a damaged perpetual childhood and the rhythms and concerns of contemporary Venetian life, from historical preservation to housing to new waves of African migrants, The Waters of Eternal Youth is another wonderful addition to this series. “Donna Leon’s Venetian mysteries never disappoint . . . A bittersweet story that makes us appreciate Brunetti’s philosophical take on the indignities, insanities, and cruelties of life.” —The New York Times Book Review “A new Brunetti adventure is always worth celebrating. . . . In a marvelous and moving last scene, we glimpse a moment of almost transcendent beauty that makes us realize again how important this series is to our reading lives.” —Booklist (starred review) “Leon’s latest novel marks the 25th anniversary of her wonderfully atmospheric series. . . . A sweet poignancy flows through Leon’s narrative like the faint smell of chrysanthemums bordering the ancient palazzos.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune