Description

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Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti's hopes of escaping the sweltering heat of Venice in August for a refreshing family holiday in the mountains are dashed when a gruesome discovery is made in a field in Marghera--a body so badly beaten the face is completely unrecognizable. The victim appears to be a transsexual prostitute. Brunetti searches Venice--including the red-light district--for someone who can identify the corpse, but he is met with a wall of silence. Then he receives a phone call promising tantalizing information, provided he meets with the caller under a bridge outside of town in the middle of the night. This dangerous rendezvous leads to more senseless murders, but despite the danger, Brunetti remains determined to uncover the truth. Dressed for Death, the third novel in this international best-selling series is classic Brunetti.

About the Author

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Donna Leon is the author of the international best-selling Commissario Guido Brunetti series. The winner of the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, among other awards, Leon was born in New Jersey and has lived in Venice for thirty years.

Praise For…

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[One of] the real charms of this series [is] the endearing character of Brunetti and his compassionate insights into the heart of Venice and the soul of its people. Here is a man so decent that he reads the Annals for bracing blasts of Tacitus’ fierce, uncompromising morality,’ but so unsanctimonious that he is perpetually on the lookout for the ugliest Christ Child in Western art.’ Truly, a refreshing hero.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

Despite the gruesome way in which this murder, and subsequent ones, take place, it's really a cheery, breezy mystery, filled with good humor and adventure. The ending can only leave the reader waiting avidly for the next time we meet Brunetti and his lively friends and cohorts.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Leon delivers her plot in an unassuming, graceful and beautifully paced prose that hides its measured elegance. This is procedural writing at its best, made more interesting still by the Venetian setting. The light comedy and family banter grounds the issues of social disintegration that are the real subject, as Leon takes advantage of her story to comment obliquely about AIDS, the unadmitted gay world that shadows Italian machismo, and the ways altruism and morality blanket greed and corruption.”—The Washington Post

Richly evocative. . . .Venice takes on a deep noir tint in Leon’s latest well-crafted work.”—Publishers Weekly

One of the most appealing of recent detectives, Brunetti stars in a case that brings out his canniness and his compassion—and shows his creator spreading her wings more powerfully than ever.”—Kirkus Reviews

Venice is a perfect backdrop for a crime novel and there can rarely have been one so compulsively readable.”—Mail on Sunday (UK)

Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti is a very human cop, quiet but sensitive; and her Venetian atmosphere is beguiling.”—The Times (UK)