Death at La Fenice

Venice, an opera house and a corpse before the final curtain. Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a famously difficult conductor whom hardly anyone liked, is poisoned during a performance of La Traviata at La Fenice, which leaves Commissario Guido Brunetti with a very long list of people who might have wished him ill. Venice here is beautiful, crumbling and not quite as innocent as it looks, and Leon makes the most of every canal and every motive. This is where the Brunetti series begins, so you may start at the beginning with a clear conscience.