A cracking police procedural based in Venice - the first of a series by Venice resident Donna Leon featuring Inspector Guido Brunetti. Basically a noted German conductor, Helmut Wellauer, has been found dead in his dressing room at the famed La Fenice opera house, poisoned by cyanide. Brunetti with a terrific understated style solves the crime by discovering much of the unsavoury background and personality of Wellauer, and the motivations of those closest to him to see him killed. I was assuming all along that Wellauer was maybe a parody of Karajan, but then what gets revealed at the end led me to dismiss this idea. I enjoyed this very much - not just because of the Italian and Venetian setting, but because of the believability of the personality of the Commissario. He has a fairly normal family life (albeit a wife from Venetian aristocracy), and no personal hangups. Only the traditional somewhat strained relationship with an idiot of a superior annoyed me, but that was a fairly minor part. The plot and the denouement weren't revealed until close to the end, and the writing was first rate. Great find - I shall read more of these, Guido is a worthy competitor to my friend Montalbano.

First published 1992