A Sea of Troubles - Softcover

Leon, Donna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143116207 ISBN 13: 9780143116202

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2009

Synopsis

Commissario Brunetti finds himself adrift in his tenth investigation?available for the first time in the United States

Dona Leon has amased devoted fans around the world for her atmospheric and intelligent Commissario Brunetti series. A Sea of Troubles offers a rare glimpse into the scrupulous Commissario?s personal life. When Brunetti investigates the murder of two local fishermen on the island of Pellestrina, the small community closes ranks, forcing him to accept Signorina Elettra?s offer to visit her relatives there to search for clues. Though loyal to his beloved wife, Paola, he must admit that less-than-platonic emotions underlie his concern for his boss?s beautiful secretary. Suspenseful, provocative, and deeply unsettling, A Sea of Troubles is an explosive and irresistible addition to Leon?s marvelous series.

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).

Review:

Praise for A Sea of Troubles:
“Brunetti . . . is the most humane sleuth since Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret . . . He is a decent man [who achieves] a quiet heroism.”―Philadelphia Inquirer
“Donna Leon goes from strength to strength . . . This is her tenth novel but it’s as fresh and entertaining as the first.”―Observer (UK)
“Brunetti is hard to beat―Leon’s tenth novel more than maintains the standard of its predecessors.”―Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“[Brunetti] is a tenacious underdog and his journey through Italian venality and administrative woes is always rewarding.”―Guardian (UK)
“The arrival of a new Donna Leon book fills me with pleasurable anticipation. She tells a good story, including the best of all current police detectives, Commissario Brunetti, and locates it in a superbly described Venice. The plot is beautifully constructed. The climax is exciting and disturbing . . . Brunetti is as irresistible as ever.”―Scotsman
“Mesmerising.”―Express on Sunday (UK)
“A splendid series . . . with a backdrop so vivid you can smell it.”―Sunday Telegraph (UK)
“The best yet in this series.”―Amore Travel Guides

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0143116207
• ISBN 13: 9780143116202
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 237