appalonia 's review for:

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

3.0

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This mystery was set in Venice and featured detective Guido Brunetti. Brunetti is assigned to investigate when a world-famous conductor is found dead in his dressing room, and poison is found in his coffee. Brunetti goes on to investigate all the usual suspects: the younger wife, the producer, the various singers, an old lover. I liked the character of Brunetti and his wife. It's nice to see a detective in a crime fiction novel happily married. My favorite parts of the book involve Brunetti's discussions with his boss, who is portrayed as particularly dumb. The investigation itself made sense, but wasn't particularly fascinating. A lot of information was collected but not much was relevant to the case. The resolution to the mystery was okay, but I couldn't help but feel the author was being a bit sensational. Certainly a famous man with such habits would have encountered scandal long before he'd reached his advanced age? Or even some gossip? Overall this was a good, satisfying book and I understand why people would enjoy the series. But I don't believe I'll be continuing with this series.