Les amateurs d'opéra sont réunis à la fenice de Venise où ce soir-là, Wellauer, le célébrissime chef d'orchestre allemand, dirige La Traviata. La sonnerie annonçant la fin de l'entracte retentit, les spectateurs regagnent leur place, les musiciens s'installent, les brouhahas cessent, tout le monde attend le retour du maestro. Les minutes passent, le silence devient pesant, Wellauer n'est toujours pas là ... il gît dans sa loge, mort. Le commissaire Guido Brunetti, aussitôt dépêché sur les lieux, conclut rapidement à un empoisonnement au cyanure. Le très respecté musicien avait-il des ennemis? Dans les coulisses de l'opéra, Guido Brunetti découvre l'envers du décor
Guido BrunettiSéries
Cette série policière suit le commissaire Guido Brunetti alors qu'il enquête sur des crimes à Venise. Les histoires se concentrent sur sa vie personnelle et professionnelle, révélant la corruption et les problèmes sociaux au sein de la société italienne. La série est connue pour sa représentation réaliste des enquêtes et l'atmosphère de la ville, qui devient presque un autre protagoniste de l'histoire. Chaque tome apporte de nouveaux cas et des dilemmes moraux qui obligent Brunetti à réévaluer les valeurs et la justice.






Ordre de lecture recommandé
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The second novel to feature Guido Brunetti, commissario of the Venice Police. Brunetti confronts the grisly sight of the body of an American soldier in a canal. He becomes suspicious and discovers toxic waste-dumping and a high-level cover-up that extends from the Mafia to the US Army.
- 3
The Anonymous Venetian
- 352pages
- 13 heures de lecture
Commissario Brunetti's hopes of a refreshing holiday with his family are dashed when a body is found in Marghera so badly beaten that the face is unrecognizable. Brunetti searches in vain for someone who can identify the body. Then he receives a call promising some tantalizing information.
- 4
Le prix de la chair
- 301pages
- 11 heures de lecture
Le cadavre du célèbre avocat vénitien Carlo Trevisan est retrouvé dans un train et c'est, bien sûr, le commissaire Brunetti qui est chargé de mener l'enquête. Arpentant les quartiers malfamés de Venise, il tombe sur la piste d'un trafic international de prostitution et va découvrir un commerce plus ignoble encore qu'une «traite des Blanches» post-rideau de fer... Donna Leon rend hommage à l'atmosphère unique de la cité des Doges. On retrouve l'univers attachant de son héros, fin limier en lutte contre les citoyens d'une ville dont le sens moral semble se détériorer plus vite que les palaces. Meurtres et corruption, argent sale et troubles implications de l'élite vénitienne sont au rendez-vous de ce roman au suspense savamment entretenu. [Source : 4e de couverture]
- 5
Entre deux eaux
- 319pages
- 12 heures de lecture
Venise en hiver : une cité crépusculaire, envahie par les eaux de la lagune durant l'acqua alta, et où l'on est obligé d'enfiler des bottes si l'on ne veut pas se mouiller les pieds. C'est dans cette ville battue par la pluie que le commissaire Brunetti va devoir enquêter sur la mort du dottor Sernenzato, conservateur. Dans ce cinquième épisode des enquêtes du commissaire Brunetti, Donna Leon renoue avec Flavia Petrelli et Brett Lynch, personnages de Mort à la Fenice. Dans les arcanes du monde de l'art, elle confronte son emblématique policier à un directeur de musée peu scrupuleux, à un antiquaire qui l'est encore moins, et à un collectionneur dangereux, capable d'employer les moyens les moins recommandables pour se procurer l'objet de ses désirs.
- 6
The Death of Faith
- 310pages
- 11 heures de lecture
Donna Leonas mastery of plot, her understanding of Venetian manners and mores, and above all her philosophical, unfailingly decent protagonist have made the Commissario Brunetti mysteries bestsellers around the world, including an ever-growing American audience. In "The Death of Faith," Brunetti comes to the aid of a young nursing sister who is leaving her convent following the unexpected death of five patients. At first Brunettias inquiries reveal nothing amiss, and he wonders whether the nun is simply creating a smoke screen to justify abandoning her vocation. But perhaps she has stumbled onto something very real and very sinisterasomething that puts her life in imminent danger.
- 7
Noblesse Oblige
- 282pages
- 10 heures de lecture
Un cadavre décomposé est découvert dans les environs de Venise. Seule sa chevalière permet de l'identifier : il s'agit d'un jeune homme d'une vingtaine d'années, Roberto Lorenzoni, fils d'une des plus grandes familles vénitiennes, kidnappé deux ans plus tôt et jamais retrouvé. Chargé de rouvrir l'enquête, le commissaire Brunetti aura besoin de l'appui de sa noble belle-famille pour s'introduire au cœur de l'aristocratie italienne où, noblesse oblige, les secrets sont bien gardés...
- 8
Fatal Remedies
- 240pages
- 9 heures de lecture
For Commissario Guido Brunetti it began with an early morning phone call. A sudden act of vandalism had just been committed in the chill Venetian dawn, a rock thrown in anger through the window of a building. But soon Brunetti finds that the perpetrator is no petty criminal. For the culprit waiting to be apprehended at the scene of the crime is none other than Paola Brunetti, his wife.
- 9
Venetian cop, Commissario Guido Brunetti, wonders whom he knows to bring pressure on a local government department, to investigate the lack of official building approval on his apartment. But when that same official phones him at work, clearly scared by some information he plans to give Brunetti, and is later found dead after a fall from scaffolding, something is clearly wrong, something with far greater implications than the fate of Guido's own apartment. Brunetti's investigations take him into the unfamiliar areas of Venetian life - drug abuse and loan sharking - while the deaths of two young drug addicts, and the arrest and release of a suspected drug dealer, reveal, once again, what a difference it makes in Venice to have 'Friends in High Places'.
- 10
A Sea of Troubles
- 336pages
- 12 heures de lecture
The murder of two clam fishermen off the island of Pellestrina, south of the Lido on the Venetian lagoon, draws Commissario Brunetti into the close-knit community of the island, bound together by a code of loyalty and a suspicion of outsiders worthy of the Mafia. When the boss' secretary Signorina Elettra volunteers to visit the island, where she has relatives, Brunetti finds himself torn between his duty to solve the murders, concerns for Elettra's safety, and his not entirely straightforward feelings for her ...
- 11
Wilful Behaviour
- 320pages
- 12 heures de lecture
From the acclaimed author of The Waters of Eternal Youth, Commissario Guido Brunetti dredges up dark secrets from Italy's anti-Semitic past in his captivating eleventh case. Mystery lovers everywhere are addicted to Donna Leon's ever-honorable Commissario Guido Brunetti and her portrayal of Venice's beautiful but sinister byways and canals. In Willful Behavior, Brunetti is approached for a favor by one of his wife's students. Intelligent and serious , Claudia Leonardo asks for his help in obtaining a pardon for a crime once committed by her now-dead grandfather. Brunetti thinks little of it-until Claudia is found dead. Soon, another corpse and an extraordinary art collection lead Brunetti to long-buried secrets of Nazi collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews-secrets few in Italy want revealed.
- 12
Le jeune Ernesto Moro est retrouvé pendu, au petit matin, dans les douches de la très sélecte Académie militaire de Venise. Officiellement, il s'est suicidé. Mais le commissaire Guido Brunetti a du mal à y croire : le jeune aristocrate est le fils du célèbre dottor Moro, un député qui enquête sur le financement des hôpitaux publics italiens et le système d'approvisionnement de l'armée... La coïncidence semble décidément trop étrange.
- 13
Doctored evidence
- 336pages
- 12 heures de lecture
When the body of a wealthy elderly woman is found, brutally murdered in her Venetian flat, Commissario Brunetti decides - unofficially - to take the case on himself.
- 14
Blood from a stone
- 355pages
- 13 heures de lecture
On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a man is killed in a scuffle in Campo San Stefano. The closest witnesses to the event are the tourists who had been browsing the man's wares before his death - fake handbags of every designer label - but they have seen nothing that might be of much help to the police. When Commissario Brunetti arrives on the scene, he finds it hard to understand why anyone would murder an illegal immigrant. They have few social connections and little money; in-fighting is the obvious answer. But once Brunetti begins investigating this unfamiliar Venetian underworld, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake in the immigrant community...
- 15
Requiem pour une cité de verre
- 283pages
- 10 heures de lecture
Par un beau jour de printemps à Venise, le commissaire Brunetti et son adjoint Vianello font libérer Ribetti, un ami de Vianello qui s'est fait bêtement coffrer lors d'une manifestation écologiste contre la pollution des eaux de la lagune. À sa sortie de prison, Ribetti est violemment pris à partie par son beau-père, propriétaire d'une des verreries de l'île de Murano. Hors de lui, le vieil homme profère des menaces de mort à l'encontre de son gendre. Pourtant, le cadavre qu'on retrouve quelques jours plus tard est celui du gardien de l'usine. L'homme avait auprès de lui une copie de L'Enfer de Dante... Il collectionnait les petits carnets sur lesquels il inscrivait des notes codées... Et il était obsédé par la pollution des eaux de la lagune qui, selon lui, avait causé le handicap mental de sa petite fille. Sa croisade l'aurait-elle amené à découvrir des secrets qu'aucun des grands verriers de Murano ne souhaitait voir exposés? Si un homme est mort pour avoir dit la vérité, ne déploiera-t-on pas les mêmes forces pour faire taire Brunetti ? [Source : 4e de couverture]
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Suffer the Little Children
- 352pages
- 13 heures de lecture
When Commissario Brunetti is summoned to the hospital bedside of a senior paediatrician whose skull has been fractured, he is confronted with more questions than answers. Three men have burst into the doctor's apartment in the middle of the night, attacked him and taken away his 18-month-old son. What can have motivated such an assault?.
- 17
The Girl of His Dreams
- 326pages
- 12 heures de lecture
One rainy morning Commissario Brunetti and Ispettore Vianello respond to a 911 call reporting a body floating near some steps on the Grand Canal. Reaching down to pull it out, Brunetti's wrist is caught by the silkiness of golden hair, and he sees a small foot - together he and Vianello lift a dead girl from the water. But, inconceivably, no one has reported a missing child, nor the theft of the gold jewellery that she carries. Brunetti is drawn into a search not only for the cause of her death but also for her identity, her family, and for the secrets that people will keep in order to protect their children - be they innocent or guilty. From the canals and palazzos of Venice to a Gypsy encampment on the mainland, Brunetti struggles with institutional prejudice and entrenched criminality to try to unravel the fate of the dead child.
- 18
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 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 how is it that Franca Marinello is involved?
- 19
A Question of Belief
- 320pages
- 12 heures de lecture
In his latest outing, Commissario Guido Brunetti must contend with ingenious corruption, bureaucratic intransigence, and the stifling heat of a Venetian summer.
- 20
A young woman returns from holiday to find her elderly neighbour dead on the floor. A heart attack seems the likely cause, but Commissario Brunetti is not so sure and decides to take a closer look. Soon he discovers that she was part of an organization that cares for abused women and that her apartment was a safe-house. Convinced that this is the lead he has been looking for, Brunetti begins his search for answers. But as he sets out to discover the truth behind her death, he is drawn into a decades-old story of lies and deceit that has blighted love and ruined lives - and has claimed this innocent woman as its newest victim. Brunetti's investigation takes him deep into the dark heart of his beloved Venice.
- 21
- 22
The Golden Egg
- 352pages
- 13 heures de lecture
The familiar characters and Venetian location are described with remarkable freshness and, as always, the edifying result is both amusing and thought- provoking Sunday Telegraph
- 23
By Its Cover is the much anticipated twenty-third instalment in Donna Leon's bestselling crime series, where Commissario Brunetti is better than ever as he addresses questions of worth and value alongside his ever-faithful team of Ispettore Vianello and Signorina Elettra. When several valuable antiquarian books go missing from a prestigious library in the heart of Venice, Commissario Brunetti is immediately called to the scene. The staff suspect an American researcher has stolen them, but for Brunetti something doesn't quite add up. Taking on the case, the Commissario begins to seek information about some of the library's regulars, such as the ex-priest Franchini, a passionate reader of ancient Christian literature, and Contessa Morosini-Albani, the library's chief donor, and comes to the conclusion that the thief could not have acted alone. However, when Franchini is found murdered in his home, the case takes a more sinister turn and soon Brunetti finds himself submerged in the dark secrets of the black market of antiquarian books. Alongside his ever-faithful team of Ispettore Vianello and Signorina Elettra, he delves into the pages of Franchini's past and into the mind of a book thief in order to uncover the terrible truth.
- 24
Brunetti en trois actes
- 336pages
- 12 heures de lecture
Quel triomphe ! Sous une pluie de roses jaunes, la cantatrice Flavia Petrelli est acclamée par le public de La Fenice. Ces roses, la soprano les reconnaît : elle en reçoit par centaines depuis le début de sa tournée. Troublée par ces cadeaux, Flavia craint pour sa sécurité. Surtout lorsqu'une jeune chanteuse est attaquée. Entre passion dévorante et jalousie maladive, le dernier acte s'annonce mortel. Née dans le New Jersey, Donna Leon vit à Venise depuis de nombreuses années. Les enquêtes du commissaire Brunetti, traduites dans vingt-cinq langues, ont séduit des millions de lecteurs. Toutes sont disponibles en Points. " Un moment extraordinaire. " The New York Times Traduit de l'anglais (Etats-Unis) par Gabriella Zimmermann
- 25
Elle a quinze ans. Une vie entre Venise et la campagne, où elle aime faire du cheval. Mais une chute dans un canal et son destin bascule : Manuela, qui ne sait pas nager, survit avec de graves séquelles. Un accident ? Effondrée, la comtesse Lando-Continui en doute. Et des années plus tard, elle convainc Brunetti de reprendre l'enquête sur sa petite-fille. Ce qui ne semble pas convenir à tout le monde...
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- 27
- 28
Quand un fils nous est donné
- 336pages
- 12 heures de lecture
- 29
A woman's cryptic dying words in a Venetian hospice lead Guido Brunetti to uncover a threat to the entire region in Donna Leon's haunting twenty-ninth Brunetti novel. When Dottoressa Donato calls the Questura to report that a dying patient at the hospice Fatebenefratelli wants to speak to the police, Commissario Guido Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, waste no time in responding. 'They killed him. It was bad money. I told him no', Benedetta Toso gasps the words about her recently-deceased husband, Vittorio Fadalto. Even though he is not sure she can hear him Brunetti softly promises he and Griffoni will look into what initially appears to be a private family tragedy. They discover that Fadalto worked in the field collecting samples of contamination for a company that measures the cleanliness of Venice's water supply and that he had died in a mysterious motorcycle accident. Distracted briefly by Vice Questore Patta's obsession with youth crime in Venice, Brunetti is bolstered once more by the remarkable research skills of Patta's secretary, Signora Elettra Zorzi. Piecing together the tangled threads, in time Brunetti comes to realize the perilous meaning in the woman's accusation and the threat it reveals to the health of the entire region. But justice in this case proves to be ambiguous, as Brunetti is reminded it can be when, seeking solace, he reads Aeschylus's classic play The Eumenides. As she has done so often through her memorable characters and storytelling skill, Donna Leon once again engages our sensibilities as to the differences between guilt and responsibility.
- 30
Les Masques éphémères
- 336pages
- 12 heures de lecture
- 31
Die Calli, Campi und Caffès, die Brunetti frequentiert, zu Touren verbunden: Zwölf von Toni Sepeda entwickelte und erprobte Spaziergänge und ein Ausflug in die Lagune erschließen die Welt des Commissario. Und der kennt Venedig wie kein anderer: Reich und Arm, heute und früher, bei Tag und bei Nacht.
Bei den Brunettis zu Gast
Rezepte von Roberta Pianaro und kulinarische Geschichten von Donna Leon
- 287pages
- 11 heures de lecture
Köstliches mit und ohne Kalorien: 91 Rezepte, wie sie Paola in den Brunetti-Romanen kocht, aufgezeichnet von Donna Leons Freundin und Lieblingsköchin Roberta Pianaro. Als kalorienfreier Zwischengang sechs kulinarische Geschichten von Donna Leon sowie wunderschöne Vignetten von Tatjana Hauptmann.
Mit Brunetti durchs Leben
Brevier für nachdenkliche Optimisten
Warum lieben Leser allerorten Brunetti wie einen Freund, mit dem man durch dick und dünn gegangen ist? Wohl weil er ebenso Philosoph ist wie Polizist. Unermüdlich versucht er seine Mitmenschen zu verstehen. Als Italiener, Genießer und Familienmensch glaubt er an das gute Leben, trotz aller Widernisse und Schurken um uns her. Dieses Buch versammelt die besten Gedanken des bekanntesten, klügsten und sympathischsten Commissario: ein abc der Lebenskunst.
'Donna Leon provides another delectable slice of the thoughtful policeman's life at work and at home... So Shall You Reap is as witty and wise as anything Leon has written. To read her is to restore the soul.' Mark Sanderson, The Times 'Like all of Leon's novels, it ultimately feels like a glorious invigorating holiday.' Daily Express On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice's canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Because no official record of the man's presence in Venice exists, Brunetti is forced to use the city's far richer sources of information- gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim. As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni, and Signorina Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle-random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships-that appear to have little in common. Until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.