About Face (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries (Audio))

Leon, Donna

3.86

7,259 ratings by Goodreads

9781602835665: About Face (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries (Audio))

ISBN 10: 1602835667 ISBN 13: 9781602835665

Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America, 2009

When Dr. Blake Hunter discovers Casey Edwards wandering along a Sweetwater, Georgia, road, shes a woman without a past, her memory stripped of the terrifying events that shattered her innocence a decade ago. The scrap of paper she clutches bears the address of Swan House, the magnificent mansion where Caseys mother lives with her mysteriously ailing husband, but home turns out to be anything but a safe haven. And now someone wants Casey out of the way before she remembers too much. It will take the strength shes always hadand the love shes just foundto save her.

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About the Author:

Donna Leon has lived in Venice for thirty years and previously lived in Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and China, where she worked as a teacher. Her novels featuring Commissario Brunetti have all been highly acclaimed, including Friends in High Places, which won the CWA Silver Dagger for Fiction.

Review:

Praise for About Face:

“Leon . . . is so generous with the humanizing details that make this series special. There are long walks in Brunetti’s warm company and lively talks with his clever wife and even more engaging father-in-law, who can see the appetites of a modern consumer reflected in a 17th-century portrait. As detective work goes, it’s a tiny masterpiece of analysis.”―Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“About Face continues Donna Leon’s deeply satisfying series about Venetian cop Guido Brunetti . . . Brunetti is canny, reflective and adept at maneuvering through trick situations. Here, he tackles environmental crimes, an enigmatic and aristocratic woman, and, of course, murder.”―Adam Woog, Seattle Times

“Fine and atmospheric . . . Leon excels at depicting Brunetti’s warm and complex domestic life, and in classic Brunetti style this outing starts with a dinner party . . . In About Face she ratchets up the tension further, expanding on both the intimate and social complexities that make her books so rich.”―Clea Simon, Boston Globe

“Leon’s books have many pleasures, including the traditional ones of intricate crimes artfully solved. But the deepest satisfaction comes from following Brunetti on his daily routine. The commissario’s life is organized around eating lunch and dinner at home . . . I can’t think of another family in literature whose members enjoy one another’s company so much.”―Bloomberg News

“Smooth and sophisticated.”―Denver Post

“One of contemporary crime literature’s most engaging cops.”―Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“With an intricate style and credible characters, what more could a reader ask? Good writing, and Leon is a master prose stylist . . . Leon hits only true notes in this gracefully composed and unsettling installment in her distinguished series.”―Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Few aspects of Venetian life have escaped the scrutiny of Donna Leon’s highly entertaining series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti. About Face, the 18th installment, continues those high standards . . . Brunetti, one of crime fiction’s most beloved police inspectors, knows he can never defeat Italian corruption, but he will never give up trying.”―South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“Leon’s carved out edgy new territory with familiar tools and it’s brilliant.”―Open Letters Monthly

“With her 18th stellar entry in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series, Leon continues to live up to the increasingly high standards set by each novel . . . Leon not only offers superb plotting and engaging dialog, but also captures the atmosphere of Venetian daily life. Thus, Brunetti enjoys frequent, leisurely meals with his wife and children. Leon’s evocation of these meals is so delectable that readers feel as though they are participating in the repasts . . . Highly recommended.”―Library Journal (starred review)

“The stench of corruption that always hangs over Venice grows disconcertingly literal when Commissario Guido Brunetti gets a case involving the illegal disposal of toxic waste. [In About Face] there are the usual sharp scenes of Brunetti at work and at home, and a surprisingly warm relationship develops between Brunetti and his hitherto remote father-in-law.”―Kirkus Reviews

“Leon flawlessly melds the two plot threads as she parallels her characters’ vulnerability with that of Venice.”―Publishers Weekly

“It is no mean feat to sustain a mystery series at this high a level . . . Of course, that is just what Donna Leon has accomplished and more . . . Once again the reader is treated to the sights and sounds of Venice as well as Brunetti’s love of classical literature and the delightful observances of his wife. Written with subtlety and insight into the characters, the novel, as its predecessors, is a pleasure to read.”―Midwest Book Review

“It’s testament to Leon’s skill as a storyteller that disparate elements blend into yet another great Brunetti outing. She combines the minutiae of daily life in Venice with pitch-perfect descriptions of police procedure, the now-familiar rhythms of Brunetti’s home life with a ferocious knowledge of literature, delivered–how else?–with a sure, yet light, touch . . . The details of home-cooked meals and family arguments, alongside a never-ending flow of crime, add a depth to Leon’s stories and are what makers her characters so believable and, in turn, her books so readable.”―Independent (UK)

“While the Commissario never seems to age or change, Italy does. That’s always the subtext of Donna Leon’s brilliantly conceived works. Brunetti does his job while the world around him seems always swirling out of control. There isn’t a weak book in this series, and About Face is definitely one of the best of the lot.”―Globe & Mail

“Beyond the detective plotting, the occasional moments of physical danger, the return of favored characters from the Questura and Brunetti’s own family, what holds [Leon’s] books together and what brings to Venice to such vivid life is Brunetti’s unique way of seeing.”―Independent (UK)

“Over the past two decades Donna Leon has done for Venice what Colin Dexter did for Oxford and Sara Paretsky for Chicago. Through as series of crime novels in which her home town plays as great a part as any of her human protagonists, she has made hundreds of thousands of fans into Venetian know-it-alls . . . She is in a long and distinguished line of expat Venetian writers that includes Byron, Ruskin, Henry James and latterly Salley Vickers and the late Michael Dibdin.”―Telegraph (UK)

“While About Face is the 18th of Leon’s Brunetti novels, it can be read without reference to what has gone before. Jump on here, by all means, but leave time to catch up. You will want to read every word of every Brunetti book.”―Bookreporter.com

“Overflowing with atmosphere . . . About Face is another winner from Donna Leon.”―BookLoons.com

“Donna Leon’s eighteenth novel starring the warm hearted, perceptive, erudite Guido Brunetti . . . About Face excels as a mystery, a delightful exploration of Venice: its history, culture, food and family life, and also an exploration of political corruption and greed . . . Highly recommended!”―I Love A Mystery

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