About Face (Guido Brunetti, 18) - Tapa dura

At a dinner party given by his parents-in-law, Commissario Brunetti meets Franca Marinello, the wife of a prosperous Venetian businessman. He's charmed - perhaps too charmed, suggests his wife Paola - by her love of Virgil and Cicero, but shocked by her appearance.

A few days later, Brunetti is visited by Carabinieri Maggior Filippo Guarino from the nearby city of Marghera. As part of a wider investigation into Mafia takeovers of businesses in the region, Guarino wants information about the owner of a trucking company who was found murdered in his office. He believes the man's death is connected to the illegal transportation of refuse - and more sinister material - in his company's trucks. No stranger to mutual suspicion and competition between rival Italian police departments, Brunetti is nevertheless puzzled by the younger man's paranoid behaviour.

Eventually Guarino agrees to email a photo of his suspect, but by the time the photograph arrives, he himself is dead. Was he killed because he got too close? And why is it that Franca Marinello has often been seen in company of the suspect, a vulgar man with Mafia connections and a violent past?

Donna Leon's new novel is as subtle, gripping and topical as ever, bringing the sights, sounds and smells of Venice flooding to life.

Praise for

'The fabulous Donna Leon' Antonia Fraser, Spectator

The Girl of His Dreams

'Beautifully mapped...Donna Leon is writing at her fluent best' Independent

'Written in a powerful, economical style, with no tidy, sentimental ending, Leon's 17th novel is one of her darkest and most reflective.' Guardian

'Another intriguing episode in this fine series.' Sunday Telegraph

Suffer the Little Children

'Leon tackles this difficult issue sensitively, without stinting on mouth-watering descriptions of Venice' Daily Telegraph

'Suffer the Little Children ... achieves a perfect blend of characters, place, mystery and social issues... Leon handles a sensitive, emotional subject with compassion...she portrays Venice as aliving, flawed city, not a smug tourist trap. Her 16th Brunetti novel is also one of her best.' The Times

'Leon started out with offhand, elegant excellence, and has simply kept it up.' Guardian