Dressed for Death: A Guido Brunetti Mystery - Tapa dura

In this third novel in the acclaimed series featuring the suavely determined Venice police commissario Guido Brunetti, Donna Leon once again leads readers into the delights and dangers of a Venice only natives know, with the help of the city's bestloved sleuth - and unwitting hero.
On a steamy, fetid August morning - the sort that the Adriatic coast is infamous for - a male corpse in female clothing turns up outside a slaughterhouse. At first, Brunetti draws the obvious conclusion, that the corpse is that of a transvestite prostitute killed by one of his johns. When the victim is identified as the sober-sided director of the Banca di Verona, Brunetti realizes that he won't be taking his much-needed vacation after all. He turns up a link between the bank and the powerful Lega della Moralita, and when two people connected to the case die violently, Brunetti fears he may be the third but redoubles his efforts to uncover exactly what the Lega's goals are.
In Dressed for Death, Guido Brunetti faces his most potent foe yet, one with ties to the highest echelons of finance, the government, even the Church. While the tension mounts, we are treated to crystalline glimpses of Venice - at its best and worst - as seen through the singularly discerning gaze of Brunetti, devoted family man, bemused civil servant, and thoroughly irresistible sleuth.

Donna Leon teaches English at the University of Maryland Extension at a U.S. Air Force base near Venice, Italy.