Leon Donna. Death in a Strange Country

Aggressively investigating an American's murder in tranquil Venice despite his superior's order to keep things clean and quiet, Commissario Guido Brunetti finds himself knee-deep in a toxic waste cover-up with political ties.Something different for Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti, whose first case (Death at La Fenice, 1992) so expertly resurrected the closed-circle whodunit. This time, the murder of Sgt. Michael Foster, public health inspector at the American military hospital at Vicenza, produces such a pronounced lack of reaction-Brunetti's officious boss Patti insists it be written off as a mugging; somebody plants cocaine in Foster's quarters in the hope of heading off further questions; even Foster's lover and commanding officer insists she has no idea why he's been killed-that the fix is clearly in with either the American military or the Italian police. Patti pulls Brunetti off the case to work a burglary from a Grand Canal palazzo, but that-and more sinister high-level skullduggery-are predictably tied in too. No whodunit, but a measured, thoughtful conspiracy investigation that goes a long way toward extending Leon's range. This is definitely an author to watch."Brunetti . long ago joined the ranks of the classic fictional detectives" Evening Standard "What makes Leon's work especially unnerving is the sense that corruption is a continuing process . The characters of Brunetti and his family continue to deepen throughout the series" The Times