Donna Leon

A truck crashes on one of the treacherous mountain roads in the Italian Dolomites, spilling a terrible cargo. Meanwhile, a prominent international lawyer is found dead in the carriage of an intercity train at Santa Lucia. Can the two tragedies possibly be connected? Commissario Guido Brunetti digs deep into the secret lives of Italy's elite classes to find the answer.

Brunetti's hopes of a refreshing family holiday in the mountains are dashed when a gruesome discovery is made in Marghera - a body so badly beaten that the face is completely unrecognizable. But when the victim's identity is revealed, the investigation takes a very unexpected turn.

For Commissario Brunetti, it began with an early morning phone call. In the chill of the Venetian dawn, a sudden act of vandalism shatters the quiet of the deserted city. But Brunnetti is soon shocked to find that the culprit waiting to be apprehended at the scene is someone from his own family. Meanwhile, he is under pressure from his superiors at work to solve a daring robbery with a link to a suspicious accidental death. Does it all lead back to the Mafia? And how are his family's actions connected to these crimes?

A high society attorney and a distinguished tax advisor are murdered within days of each other.

When a corpse in lingerie and high heels turns out to be an influential bank director, Brunetti suspects blackmail.

During a protest, Brunetti's wife throws a stone into the window of a travel agency that allegedly supports the sex trade.

The man whose skeleton is found in a field outside Venice spoke his last words two years ago, but the ring on his finger continues to speak.

Brunetti eagerly awaits the long awaited comeback of opera diva Flavia Petrelli.A stalker, however, would like to stage the performance of the opera "Tosca" as Petrelli's as an unforgettable stage performance, in which real blood is supposed to flow

Brunetti would like to have as little as possible to do with the the old-established families. The Commissario however, cannot refuse The venerable Contessa Lando-Continui, an request. The 80-year-old urges him to investigate a family tragedy, that was hushed up 15 years ago. Her granddaughter, who almost drowned in a mysterious fall into the canal, has lasting damage from brain injuries. Manuela, now 30 years old, is and will always be on the mental level of a child! When her then saviour is stabbed, Brunetti finds himself in the middle of a murder case. In his investigations he does not stop at the family, the confidants and the business of the mighty Contessa. He wants to find out the whole truth.

In his 26th (and last) case, Uwe Kockisch, as Guido Brunetti, has to recognize his own limits: the Venetian commissioner has burned out from his exhausting work and urgently needs rest after a weakness in the Questura. But even when he was on sick leave, the idealistic investigator set about clearing up the mysterious death of a beekeeper who had become a particularly familiar friend in a short time.