Description:

Anthology containing:

Suffer the Little Children
The Girl of His Dreams
About Face

16 • Suffer the Little Children
isbn:9780099503224

A riveting new mystery from international bestseller Donna Leon Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti series has made Venice—a city that’s beautiful and sophisticated, but also secretive and corrupt—one of mystery fans’ most beloved locales. In this brilliant new book, Brunetti is summoned to the hospital bed of a respected pediatrician, where he is confronted with more questions than answers. Three men had burst into the doctor’s apartment, attacked him, and kidnapped his eighteen-month-old son. What could have motivated an assault so violent that it has left the doctor mute? And could this crime be related to the moneymaking scam run by pharmacists that Brunetti’s colleague has recently uncovered? As Brunetti delves deeper into the case, a story of infertility, desperation, and illegal dealings begins to unfold.

17 • The Girl of His Dreams
isbn:9780099517641

When a friend of Commissario Guido Brunetti's brother, a priest recently returned from years of missionary work in Africa, calls on the Commissario with a request, Brunetti suspects the man has hidden motives. A new, American-style Christian sect has begun to meet in private homes in the city, and it's possible the priest is merely apprehensive of the competition. But the preacher could also be fleecing his growing flock, so Brunetti and his wife, Paola, along with Inspector Vianello and his wife, go undercover.The investigation has to be put aside, however, when, one cold and rainy morning, the body of a gypsy girl is found floating in a canal. It looks like the girl may have fallen off a nearby roof while fleeing an apartment she had robbed but, inconceivably, no one has reported a missing child or the theft of the gold ring she carries. And when Brunetti ventures out to a gypsy camp on the mainland to inform the parents, the insular community resists his questions, refusing to let him speak with the mother.Like a number of Leon's previous novels, The Girl of His Dreams explores the people and cultures at the margins of Italian life, in this case, the secretive world of the Romani people, scores of thousands of whom exist both inside and outside of society. Haunted by the girl, Brunetti finds himself struggling with both institutional prejudice and entrenched criminality as he attempts to solve the crime.

18 • About Face
isbn:9781409061830

Incinerators across the south of Italy are at full capacity, burning who-knows-what and releasing unacceptable levels of dangerous air pollutants, while in Naples, enormous garbage piles grow in the streets. In Venice, with the polluted waters of the canals and a major chemical complex across the lagoon, the issue is never far from the fore. Environmental concerns become significant in Brunetti's work when an investigator from the Carabiniere, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage, asks for a favor. But the investigator is not the only one with a special request. His father-in-law needs help and a mysterious woman comes into the picture. Brunetti soon finds himself in the middle of an investigation into murder and corruption more dangerous than anything he's seen before.