Maryanne M. reviewed Friends in High Places by Donna Leon on 2/18/2009 + 2 more book reviews

If you love the Brunetti mysteries by Donna Leon, you'll like this book too. I have read all the books by Donna Leon to date and love them! Each is set in Venice, Italy and is about a mystery that Commissario Guido Brunetti solves. Leon evokes not just the layout of Venice, but mentions restaurants, shops, etc. that Brunetti and his family frequent. Venice is another character, so to speak, in the book.

In this novel Brunetti is visited by a young bureaucrat investigating the lack of official approval for the construction of Brunetti's apartment years before. What began as a red tape headache ends in murder when the bureaucrat is later found dead after a mysterious fall from a scaffold. Brunetti starts an investigation that will take him into the unfamiliar and dangerous areas of drug abuse and loan-sharking and will reveal, once again, what a difference it makes in Venice to have friends in high places.

Another review:
Leon tell the story as if she loves Venice as much as her detective does, warts and all. The plot and subplots unfold elegantly; beauty and the beast march hand in hand, and the result is rich entertainment." - The Sunday Times (London)

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