BLOOD FROM A STONE PB

Leon writes with great literary panache and evocative power about the worlds most beautiful and mysterious city Spectator On a cold night shortly before Christmas, an immigrant street vendor is killed in Venices Campo Santo Stefano. The nearest witnesses to the event are the tourists who had been browsing the mans wares before his death, but they have seen nothing that might be of much help to the police. When Commissario Brunetti arrives on the scene, he finds it hard to understand why anyone would murder an illegal immigrant. They have few social connections and little money; in-fighting among them is the obvious answer. But once Brunetti begins investigating this unfamiliar Venetian underworld, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake. Donna Leon has a wonderful feel for the hidden evils that lie below the facade of the magical city The Times