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Doctored Evidence
A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery
Donna Leon
Atlantic Monthly Press (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0-87113-918-9
Publication Date: April, 2004
List Price: $22.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): After the body of a wealthy elderly woman is found brutally murdered in her Venetian apartment, the police suspect her maid, who has disappeared and is heading for her native Romania. When the woman is approached by the border police as her train is leaving Italy, she makes a run for it and is killed as she crosses the tracks. She has a considerable sum of money on her and her papers are obvious forgeries. Case closed.
But when the old woman’s neighbor returns from a business trip in London, it becomes clear that the maid could not have had time to kill the old woman before catching her train and that the money on her was not stolen. Commissario Guido Brunetti decides—unofficially—to take on the case himself.
At home, Brunetti’s loving wife, Paola, reads the chapter in her daughter’s religious instruction book about the Seven Deadly Sins. As he investigates the case, Brunetti realizes that this is probably not a crime motivated by Greed, rather that the motive may have more to do with the temptations of Lust. But perhaps Brunetti is following a false trail and thinking of the wrong sin altogether.
Review: Venice Commissioner of Police Guido Brunetti makes his 13th appearance in Donna Leon's Doctored Evidence.
What makes Leon's books such a treat is that the reader "solves" the mystery together with Brunetti. By carefully examining the evidence, sorting through the clues, and putting the often disparate pieces of the crime puzzle together to form a coherent picture, a solution slowly forms that is frequently unexpected. Brunetti's co-workers and family frequently play an important role in these mysteries; in Doctored Evidence, the formidable computer wizard Signorina Elettra, the dogged Lieutenant Scarpa, and Brunetti's always literate wife Paola, each in their own way, provide clues to unraveling the mystery of the old woman's murder.
Donna Leon is one of the premiere authors of detective fiction writing today and the cleverly titled Doctored Evidence is one of the year's best mysteries.
Special thanks to Atlantic Monthly Press for providing the ARC of Doctored Evidence for this review.
Review Copyright © 2004 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books
Other mysteries by Donna Leon:
Death
at La Fenice
HarperCollins (1992)
ISBN: 0-06-016871-4
Death
in a Strange Country
HarperCollins (1993)
ISBN: 0-06-017008-5
Dressed
for Death (The Anonymous Venetian)
HarperCollins (1994)
ISBN: 0-06-017795-0
Death
and Judgment (A Venetian Reckoning)
HarperCollins (1995)
ISBN: 0-06-017796-9
Acqua
Alta (Death in High Water)
HarperCollins (1996)
ISBN: 0-06-018651-8
The
Death of Faith
Macmillan (1997)
ISBN: 0-333-67375-1
A
Noble Radiance
William Heinemann (1998)
ISBN: 0-434-00417-0
Fatal
Remedies
William
Heinemann (1999)
ISBN: 0-434-00419-7
Friends
in High Places
William
Heinemann (2000)
ISBN: 0-434-00421-9
A
Sea of Troubles
William
Heinemann (2001)
ISBN: 0-434-00974-1
Wilful
Behaviour
William
Heinemann (2002)
ISBN: 0-434-00994-6
Uniform
Justice
Atlantic Monthly Press (2003)
ISBN: 0-87113-903-0
Blood
From a Stone
Atlantic Monthly Press (2005)
ISBN: 0-87113-887-5
Through
a Glass Darkly
Atlantic Monthly Press (2006)
ISBN: 0-87113-937-5
Omnimystery keyword(s) for Doctored Evidence ...
Locations referenced: Venice.
