The Anonymous Venetian

The Italian detective Commissario Brunetti has to cut short his holiday as he takes on another tantalizing case in Donna Leon's The Anonymous Venetian , an atmospheric murder mystery filled with the sights and sounds of Venice. Commissario Brunetti's hopes of a refreshing family holiday in the mountains are once again dashed when a gruesome discovery is made in Marghera – a body so badly beaten the face is unrecognizable. Brunetti searches Venice for someone who can identify the dead man. But he is met with a wall of silence. Then he receives a telephone call from a contact who promises some intriguing information. And before the night is out Brunetti is confronting yet another appalling and apparently senseless death . . . The third novel in the Commissario Brunetti Venetian crime series, which also includes Acqua Alta and So Shall You Reap . 'A splendid series . . . with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can almost smell it' – Sunday Telegraph