Death At La Fenice
A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery  
By Donna Leon

      Thanks to the confusing water ways, crime is rare in the floating city of Venice. During a concert break, one of those rare crimes occurs and a mere doorway is the means of escape. Someone poisoned a legendary German music conductor and slipped back into the concert. Guido Brunetti, police commissario of Venice, is working the case and the immediate suspects are "… a young wife, a soprano who lied about not seeing him before he died, and a gay director who had an argument with him before he was killed." Later, after Brunetti discovers the "dead genius" cruel personality and Nazi past, the suspects increase.

     With the first in her Venetian series, Donna Leon's image of Venice is subtle. Maybe due to the fact that it's winter and the tourists are gone. The occasional mentions of Venice at night are beautifully written. Leon's skill at concealing the mystery seems effortless. The main characters are credible and the readers learn just enough about them to understand them. The reader follows Brunetti in the investigation, making this a police procedural, but this one is minus any hardboiled-typed scenes. This is one of the best first in series that I've read.