Blood from a Stone (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries)

Guido Brunetti, the hero of Donna Leonandrsquo;s internationally bestselling crime series, is back, in a novel that combines an ingenious plot with an alluring portrait of contemporary Venice. On a cold December night, a Senegalese man who sells counterfeit fashion accessories is killed on the Campo Santo Stefano. What first appears to be a straightforward clash between rival dealers soon raises questions: What was a penniless foreigner doing with a fortune in diamonds? And why does Brunettiandrsquo;s boss want him off the case? Fans of Donna Leon will be thrilled with Blood from a Stone, as Brunetti delves into the secrets of Veniceandrsquo;s immigrant community and continues to uncover corruption in the upper echelons of the government.

Guido Brunetti, the hero of Donna Leonandrsquo;s internationally bestselling crime series, is back, in a novel that combines an ingenious plot with an alluring portrait of contemporary Venice. On a cold December night, a Senegalese man who sells counterfeit fashion accessories is killed on the Campo Santo Stefano. What first appears to be a straightforward clash between rival dealers soon raises questions: What was a penniless foreigner doing with a fortune in diamonds? And why does Brunettiandrsquo;s boss want him off the case? Fans of Donna Leon will be thrilled with Blood from a Stone, as Brunetti delves into the secrets of Veniceandrsquo;s immigrant community and continues to uncover corruption in the upper echelons of the government.

A New Yorker of Irish/Spanish descent, Donna Leon first went to Italy in 1965, returning regularly over the next decade or so while pursuing a career as an academic in the States and then later in Iran, China and finally Saudi Arabia. It was after a period in Saudi Arabia, which she found andlsquo;damaging physically and spirituallyandrsquo; that Donna decided to move to Venice, where she has now lived for over twenty years.

Her debut as a crime fiction writer began as a joke: talking in a dressing room in Veniceandrsquo;s opera-house La Fenice after a performance, Donna and a singer friend were vilifying a particular German conductor. From the thought andlsquo;why donandrsquo;t we kill him?andrsquo; and discussion of when, where and how, the idea for Death at La Fenice took shape, and was completed over the next four months.

Donna Leon is the crime reviewer for the London Sunday Timesand#160;and is an opera expert. She has written the libretto for a comic opera, entitled Dona Gallina. Set in a chicken coop, and making use of existing baroque music, Donna Gallina was premiered in Innsbruck. Brigitte Fassbaender, one of the great mezzo-sopranos of our time, and now head of the Landestheater in Innsbruck, agreed to come out of retirement both to direct the opera and to play the part of the witch Azuneris (whose name combines the names of the two great Verdi villainesses Azucena and Amneris).