"Smuggling, sexual betrayal, high-class fakery and, of course, mafia money make for a rich brew."—The Sunday Times (UK)
In “every fan’s first-pick Brunetti novel” (The New Yorker), the brutal beating of a renowned art historian draws the Venetian detective into the yearly onslaught of acqua alta—the torrential winter rains
As Venice braces for the onslaught of a stormy tempest and rising waters from exceptionally high tides, Commissario Guido Brunetti is pulled from his warm bed to find that an old friend, Dotoressa Brett Lynch, has been savagely beaten in the palazzo home she shares with Flavia Petrelli, the reigning diva of La Scala. Brunetti suspects that this is not a simple crime, and then, as the flood waters rise, a corpse is discovered.
”Music and art mingle delightfully with murder and mayhem in the course of this very engaging story.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
