Acqua Alta plunges Commissario Guido Brunetti into a Venice lashed by winter storms and rising floodwaters. When renowned art historian Dotoressa Brett Lynch is brutally attacked, Brunetti is drawn from his peaceful family life into a dangerous investigation set against the backdrop of the city’s yearly acqua alta.
Brett, an American expert in Chinese pottery, shares her home with celebrated opera singer Flavia Petrelli, diva of La Scala. As Brunetti navigates their world of music, art, and celebrity, he finds himself more unsettled by Flavia’s extraordinary talent than by the unconventional shape of their relationship.
The case leads Brunetti into the shadowy side of Venice’s cultural splendour, where rare objects, forged artworks, and greed collide. In damp alleys, flooded squares, and hidden warehouses, he uncovers a web of art theft and deception that reveals how far some will go to possess beauty and power.
This instalment in the Brunetti series blends atmospheric crime fiction with a thoughtful study of character, morality, and desire, offering both mystery fans and lovers of Venice a richly textured story.
- Atmospheric Venice setting during winter floods
- Art crime, forgery, and the high stakes of cultural prestige
- Thoughtful, humane detective at the centre of the mystery
