Acqua Alta

Name: Acqua Alta
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Donna Leon
ISBN: 9781501997143

Author: Donna Leon

Series: Commissario Brunetti Mysteries #5

Narrator: David Colacci

Unabridged: 10 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 05/18/2018

Categories: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural, International Crime & Mystery, Hard-boiled

Synopsis

In Leon's fifth Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery, the beating of renowned art historian Dotoressa Brett Lynch draws the contemporary Venetian police detective out of his warm and loving home and into the yearly onslaught of acqua alta, the torrential winter rains. Brett, an American who spearheaded a recent exhibition of Chinese pottery in Venice, lives with her lover, Flavia Petrelli, the reigning diva of La Scala. With his open mind and good sense, Brunetti finds himself more fazed by Flavia's breathtaking talent than by the nontraditional relationship between the two women. Brunetti's deliberate and humane investigation to uncover a motive for Brett's beating takes him to dark, wet corners of Venice and into a sinister web of art theft, fakery and base human desires.

About Donna Leon

American author, Donna Leon, has settled nicely into a series of crime novels set in Venice, Italy entitled, Brunettixote. The novels feature the fictional character of Commissario Guido Brunetti.

Leon was born in 1942, and eventually lived in Venice, Italy for over 30 years. She was an English literature lecturer for the University of Maryland in Europe (Italy), and worked on a military base in Italy for several years, before she became a full time writer. She moved to Zurich, Switzerland, and also had a home in a smaller Swiss village.

The novels have been translated from English into several foreign languages, but for some reason the author did not approve them being translated into Italian. German television has shown 22 Commissario Brunetti episodes that they produced for broadcast.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim on July 01, 2022

[Edited for typos 7/1/22] Two high-powered women live in one of Venice’s beautiful palazzo homes. One woman, an American, is an expert in Chinese art and archaeology. She has just returned from China and is well-known in art circles for having worked with the local museum to put together a display of......more

Goodreads review by Blaine on May 30, 2021

Another fine effort in this series, although not quite as good as previous books. This book concentrates on the world of faked museum pieces, specifically ceramics from the digs in Xian, China. It is different from her other books in that there seems to be a lot more attention paid to details on how......more

Goodreads review by Alex is The Romance Fox on January 15, 2016

Alta Acqua, the 5th book in the Commisario Brunetti series by Donna Leone. The title of the book refers to the time in winter, where water from the Adriatic Sea overflows into Venice causing homes and places in the city. Guido Brunetti, the highly skilled, tenacious and very likeable Venetian police......more

Goodreads review by Dorothy on September 19, 2018

I needed a reading palate cleanser - a quick and easy read to bridge the gap between two more serious literary works. I decided to go with one of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti mysteries, a series that I've discovered fairly recently. It has provided dependable reading pleasure. Acqua Alta is the......more

Goodreads review by Brenda on October 31, 2014

I love Commissario Guido Brunetti of Donna Leon's mysteries almost as much as Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache! He has just the right amount of complexity and humanity, struggles constantly with what is 'right' and why people are like they are, do what they do. The writing is beautiful, as it s......more