By its Cover: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery (The Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries, 23) - Hardcover

Leon, Donna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802122647 ISBN 13: 9780802122643

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2014

Synopsis

Donna Leon’s critically acclaimed, internationally bestselling Commissario Guido Brunetti series has attracted readers the world over with the beauty of its setting, the humanity of its characters, and its fearlessness in exploring politics, morality, and contemporary Italian culture. In the pages of Leon’s novels, the beloved conversations of the Brunetti family have drawn on topics of art and literature, but books are at the heart of this novel in a way they never have been before.

One afternoon, Commissario Guido Brunetti gets a frantic call from the director of a prestigious Venetian library. Someone has stolen pages out of several rare books. After a round of questioning, the case seems clear: the culprit must be the man who requested the volumes, an American professor from a Kansas university. The only problem the man fled the library earlier that day, and after checking his credentials, the American professor doesn’t exist.

As the investigation proceeds, the suspects multiply. And when a seemingly harmless theologian, who had spent years reading at the library turns up brutally murdered, Brunetti must question his expectations about what makes a man innocent, or guilty.

About this title

About the Author:

Donna Leon is the author of the internationally bestselling Commissario Guido Brunetti series. The winner of the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, among other awards, Leon was born in New Jersey and has lived in Venice for thirty years.

Review:

A Seattle Times Best Mystery and Crime Novel of the Year

“Inspired by the real-life looting of the Girolamini Library in Naples, this book adds to Donna Leon’s best-selling Commissario Guido Brunetti series . . . Leon’s description of the setting is vivid. And she doesn’t shy away from politics, either, with her passion for preserving national institutions such as the library shining through.”―New York Times

With its loudly reverberating echoes of the recent real-life thefts from the Girolamini Library in Naples, By its Cover will both delight and strike fear into bibliophiles’ hearts. . . . Leon offers a finely drawn tale that encompasses theft, blackmail, emotional violence, and murder, as well as a rich array of characters . . . [and] compellingly combines their workaday crime-solving with a detailed picture of a vanishing Venice.” Boston Globe

Fans will rejoice that staples of the Brunetti canon including conversations with his smart wife and frequent breaks for food and coffee are very much in evidence.” Seattle Times

Donna Leon’s books . . . are routinely some of the finest mystery novels to come out of Europe (or anywhere else, for that matter). Her latest, By its Cover, will do nothing but burnish that reputation.” BookPage

One of her best in a long line of super efforts. . . . Brunetti’s wry internal observations and musings about everything from his superiors to his family are reason enough to come to the feast.” Bookreporter

Think of Leon’s latest Guido Brunetti novel as a love letter to her fans. . . . This will likely be one of his most-loved adventures.” Booklist (starred review)

This character-driven novel looks at the ravages of rare book theft on libraries, and, more broadly, the destructive effects of contemporary greed . . . on cultural heritage. [A] skillful evocation of the city’s charms, culture, and history.” Publishers Weekly

Brunetti and Venice and books there’s a totally delectable combination! . . . Truly a must-read for Brunetti fans.” I Love a Mystery

Donna Leon is one of the more unusual and satisfying writers of crime fiction in the current pantheon. . . . Brunetti is exceptional among detectives. . . . . Not since Simenon’s Maigret have we seen a detective so devoted to the reality and complexity of everyday life.” Sydney Morning Herald

About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0802122647
• ISBN 13: 9780802122643
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 237