The anonymous Venetian - Donna Leon

The Italian detective Commissario Brunetti has to cut short his holiday as he takes on another tantalizing case in Donna Leon's The Anonymous Venetian, an atmospheric murder mystery filled with the sights and sounds of Venice.

Commissario Brunetti's hopes of a refreshing family holiday in the mountains are once again dashed when a gruesome discovery is made in Marghera - a body so badly beaten the face is unrecognizable.

Brunetti searches Venice for someone who can identify the dead man. But he is met with a wall of silence.

Then he receives a telephone call from a contact who promises some intriguing information. And before the night is out Brunetti is confronting yet another appalling and apparently senseless death . . .

The third novel in the Commissario Brunetti Venetian crime series, which also includes Acqua Alta and So Shall You Reap.

'A splendid series . . . with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can almost smell it' - Sunday Telegraph