Through a Glass, Darkly - Softcover

Leon, Donna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143038060 ISBN 13: 9780143038061

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2007

Synopsis

The latest case in Donna Leon’s bestselling Brunetti mystery series—“one of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever” (The Washington Post)

The Philadelphia Inquirer called Leon’s incomparable creation Commissario Guido Brunetti “the most humane sleuth since Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret.” It’s no wonder then that Leon’s legion of fans continues to grow with each new book that’s published. In Through a Glass, Darkly, Brunetti investigates the murder of a night watchman, whose body is found in front of a blazing furnace at Giovanni De Cal’s glass factory along with an annotated copy of Dante’s Inferno. Did the cantankerous De Cal kill him? Will Brunetti make the connection between the work of literature and the murderer in time?

About this title

About the Author:

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 ‘damaging physically and spiritually’ 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 Venice’s opera-house La Fenice after a performance, Donna and a singer friend were vilifying a particular German conductor. From the thought ‘why don’t we kill him?’ 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 Times 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).

From AudioFile:

David Colacci's performance brings an unhurried elegance to Leon's unique detective, Commisario Guido Brunetti. He creates a Venice you can feel in your bones, "cold and damp in winter and hot and damp in summer." Colacci's interpretation of each well-drawn personality is as fresh as the first day of spring, the day Brunetti and his assistant, Vianello, try to help eco-protester Marco Ribetti. Later, a murder at Ribetti's father-in-law's glass factory has Brunetti hunting the killer. Dealing with political corruption, toxic waste, and clues found in Dante's DIVINE COMEDY, Colacci shifts from unaccented narration to a wide range of completely believable Italian accents, never missing a beat, never overstating or slipping into obvious stereotype. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0143038060
• ISBN 13: 9780143038061
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 336