Death at La Fenice

Written by Donna Leon

Narrated by David Colacci

There is little violent crime in Venice, a serenely beautiful floating city of mystery and magic, history and decay. But the evil that does occasionally rear its head is the jurisdiction of Guido Brunetti, the suave, urbane vice-commissario of police
and a genius at detection. Now all of his admirable abilities must come into play in the deadly affair of Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world-renowned conductor who died painfully from cyanide poisoning during an intermission at La Fenice.

But as the investigation unfolds, a chilling picture slowly begins to take shape—a detailed portrait of revenge painted with vivid strokes of hatred and shocking depravity. And the dilemma for Guido Brunetti will not be finding a murder suspect, but rather narrowing the choices down to one …

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705072721

Reviews for Death at La Fenice

[Anya · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Wanted to like it but it did not hold my interest. Might try a different one maybe the first is not as good?

[Mike Downing · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really great book early in the Brunetti series before the author gets overly political

[zumbanista · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A delight for Venice lovers, this police procedural moves slowly to its conclusion in a solidly methodical manner. Our Comissario Brunetti observes everyone and stays above the fray while detecting, right up till the very end. Not the most exciting crime novels, the author writes about the intelligentsia and artworld in a dispassionate manner.

[kindleifier · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good in parts, but too much was lacking in emotional depth which made it difficult to empathise with any of the characters.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I quite enjoyed this first book in the Brunetti series (even though I figured out a good portion of the solution). I look forward to reading more of Leon's mysteries.

[seriousgrace · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Death at La Fenice is a super fast read. You could probably finish it in a couple of days if you didn't have anything else going on in your life...This is Donna Leon's first novel featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti. When a world famous orchestral conductor dies of an apparent poisoning, Brunetti enters a world of snobbish culture of music and celebrity. The best part of Death at La Fenice is Brunetti's personality. The balance he must practice between home life, being a father and husband, with trying to solve a mystery without any real leads or suspects. Who would want to kill this esteemed man of music; so beloved in the music world? Another great reason to read Leon's series is her descriptions of Venice. You will get to know this watery world in beautiful detail.

[tomdonaghey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Death At La Fenice (1992) (Comm. Brunette #1) by Donna Leon. The Venice Opera house is where the elite of the city, and the world, come to see, be seen, and talk about each other. Sometimes they even listen to a little of the music. But when one of the world’s leading conductor is in the house, every eye is still somewhere other than him. When the second intermission in La Traviata is over and the audience returns to their seats, one person is missing. Maestro Helmut Wellauer has failed to take command of the orchestra and the production. His understudy is hastily ushered to the podium. The police are called. The Maestro has been found dead in his dressing room. Cyanide poisoning is soon determined to be the cause. But who would want this highly talented musician and much loathed individual dead? That question is to be answered by Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venetian Police. Suspects about, from the young wife (thirty years junior to her late husband) to the aged former opera diva whose life Wellauer destroyed. There are members of the production who hated the man while admiring the musician. The clues are almost nonexistent but the pressure from city hall and the press is almost overwhelming. Thankfully we have Brunetti in this first book of the long running series. Here we meet the weary policeman, his wife and children, his in-laws (the Count and Countess of something Italian), members of the press and other within the police. There is a nice little puzzle here and Brunetti manages to pick apart the pieces until he reveals the truth. The question he has to answer is how best can justice, and perhaps even the law, be served.This is a nice introduction to the city that gave us those horrendous looking doctor’s plague masks. You know the ones that look like black birds with bulbous eyes. They always give me the heebie-jeebies whenever I see one. But today I might just go out wearing one of them.Stay strong! Stay healthy! And stay away from me! I thank you.

[waldhaus1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Venice and La Fenice are certainly characters in the story. I had read and enjoyed a Brunetti mystery a few years ago and am glad to now be getting back into the series. Perhaps recent travel to Venice pushed me over the edge. La Fenice burned for the third time in 1996. This book was published in 1992 before that fire, the third in is history. La Fenice = the Phoenix. Character development well done, making them believable. The scene in the apartment of the former diva in her poverty was touching and real sounding. I enjoyed the mention of being able to see the distant mountains on a clear winter day as I had that experience when I was there recently.

[tytania-2 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This made Louise Penny look like the finest literature. It was so cheesy. The treatment of homosexuality was so dated. Nobody had any personality. Not a moment was believable.

[romonko · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have been receiving recommendations to read this series for a long time, so I thought I'd read the first book and see how I liked it. To be honest, I didn't care for it much for almost the first half of the book because the plot seemed slow and cumbersome, but then something happened about halfway through, and I found that I really enjoyed Guido Brunetti. Brunetti is a vice-commisario of police in the city of Venice, so you couldn't ask for a more beautiful setting for a crime series. Guido has the most wonderful wife called Paola and two teenaged children Giovanni and Chiara. The glimpses into Guido's family life lifted this book up in my estimation. Guido himself is what I would call a cerebral police investigator. He is an astute observer and is not afraid to follow leads wherever they will take him. He works on his own, and wants no outside interference on his investigations, but he must put up with Patta, his incompetent boss and it is quite amusing to watch how Brunetti plays him,. In this book a famous orchestra conductor is found dead in his dressing room during a performance of La Traviata in the La Fenice opera house in Venice. As Brunetti investigates, he finds long-buried secrets and some very damning information from the conductor's past life. Brunetti keeps following the past until he uncovers the motive behind this crime. This looks to me to be a very promising series, and I would like to read more.

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Donna Leon's first book in this long-running and quite good series is clearly a forerunner for life with Guido. He is a solo operator with difficult superiors in the beginning but shows the introspection, humility, and compassion that will characterize his future work.

[ffortsa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

his was a reread for the Two Guidos challenge, and a very welcome visit to a mystery I had totally forgotten. I think the series gets better, deeper as it progresses, but this is a good first.

[worrellw_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Super beginning to a series I know I will become addicted to!

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A pleasing read, well paced with characters interesting enough to be involving set in Venice seen through the eyes of a first generation native, so it is familiar if not all embracing. The spectrum of characters is almost entirely from theater workers up to the high level of Venetian society, with the intrusion of one person who has fallen to into wretchedness. The death and it's causes are complex enough to maintain attention.

[karenvg3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Had to lead our mystery book club meeting today at the library so this was a hurry up and get it read. The story was good but I could have used a bit more action. Overall everyone in the book club really enjoyed it and gave it a thumbs up. Me... 3.5 ?

[thorold_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In the best tradition of murder mysteries, the first Brunetti novel opens with the sudden death of the maestro between the second and third acts of La Traviata. And of course it turns out that just about everyone in his immediate surroundings could have had a personal reason to detest the conductor - an authoritarian German with touches of Karajan, Furtwängler and Richard Strauss in his back-story - even though most of them say a love of his music would have held them back from actually killing him. The solution to the mystery turns out to be relatively simple, and mostly involves Brunetti holding back on asking the most obvious questions until we get to page 200; the reason to read this book is not the crime-story itself, but rather Leon's affectionate, mildly satirical view of Venice and the people who live there. She seems to be very good at catching what it is about the Italian professional classes that makes them peculiarly Italian, without quite turning her characters into stereotypes. (It's also nice to see how much LGBT interest there is in this book - not something that would be completely obvious for a mainstream crime novel published 25 years ago.)By the sound of it, the mood gets a little blacker and more political in the later books, which is probably a good thing - you would fairly soon get fed up with the light, frivolous atmosphere of this one if it carried on without discovering any further depths in the characters. I don't know if the plots get any more complex, though.

[rretzler_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Death at La Fenice is the first book in Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti series which takes place in Venice. When world-famous Maestro Wellauer is found dead between acts of the opera La Traviata in the Teatro La Fenice, Venetian police commissioner, Guido Brunetti, is called to the scene. In order to solve the case, Brunetti must delve into Wellauer’s past, including his rumored Nazi connections and his relationships with his three wives – one divorced, one committed suicide and one widowed. Also complicating the case is Wellauer’s homophobia against his stage manager and his soprano.This is the first book by Donna Leon I have read, although I have had this book on my wishlist for some time. I was immediately pulled into the book as I could feel myself in the theater: "The lights dimmed, the hall grew dark, and the tension created by an ongoing performance mounted as the audience waited for the conductor to reappear on the podium. Slowly the hum of voices faded, the members of the orchestra stopped fidgeting in their seats, and the universal silence announced everyone’s readiness for the third and final act. The silence lengthened, grew heavy."I enjoyed Leon’s style of writing. I found it easy to read, and the storyline generally flowed without dragging. Leon sprinkles in a few Italian phrases here and there, but I don’t think it detracts from the story. We are also introduced to the Venice in the story, getting to know different aspects of the city.Guido Brunetti is a very likable character. Leon lets us in on his thoughts so that we get to know him throughout the book, especially his dedication to the law, but also his empathy. We are introduced to his family – wife, Paola, daughter, Chiara, and son, Raffaele, all of whom he adores, and his in-laws, Count and Countess Falier, with whom he has a strained relationship. Adding some comic relief is Guido’s superior, Vice-Questore Guiseppe Patta, who regularly issues “crime alerts” in the press, singling out a particular crime of the week for wiping out. Patta seems more of a hindrance than a help, but Guido seems adept at managing Patta's ego. I thought the resolution of the case was a little unexpected given that this was the first book of the series. For most readers, there is a reveal that will be surprising; however, I felt the solution was a little anti-climatic.Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable read, and I look forward to continuing the series.

[rbeffa_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A different sort of mystery set in Venice. In the middle of a performance of an opera the conductor is found poisoned during a break. I liked this a lot - and I'll be reading more in the series as I track down the early novels. The author gives us a lot of atmosphere and adds color to many of the secondary characters. This was just a nice pleasurable read that didn't break my brain and the ending came as a bit of a surprise. I quite enjoy being inside of Commissario Brunetti's head as he interacts with people. Quite entertaining and this really feels like the start of a series I'm going to get comfortable with. The humor in here is everywhere but it is rather subdued.

[berly_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Death at La Fenice is the first novel in Donna Leon's internationally best-selling Commissario Guido Brunetti series. During intermission at the famed La Fenice opera house in Venice, a notoriously difficult conductor is poisoned, and suspects abound. Brunetti, a native Venetian, sets out to unravel the mystery behind the high-profile murder. To do so, he he calls on his knowledge of Venice, its culture, and its dirty politics. Revenge, corruption, and even Italian cuisine play a role. The novel that started it all, Death at La Fenice is an entrancing mystery, rich in atmosphere."I really enjoyed this Murder Mystery. The setting is awesome -- I have been to Venice and could picture some of the places described. And our detective, Guido, is a likable, imperfect guy, who is married no less...with kids! I didn't see the complete solution although I had my suspicions. Works for me! 3.5

[kaulsu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Amazing! A first novel that was well done! I look forward to reading number two!I didn't get a full picture of Venice through this book, but I imagine I will become more and more familiar with its streets and byways and canals as I read more and more of the series.I know next to nothing about Opera, but some of the characters did flesh out the caricatures of the principal or typical subjects. I really puzzled over the list of suspects. Of course, this no doubt had much to do with the fact this was a "first" book. No spoiler alerts from me. So, while the murderer seemed obvious, the reason wasn't so clear until the end. The detective, Guido Brunetti, is human. Wow. What a nice change.

[olivermagnus · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Maestro Helmut Wellauer, considered the world's greatest living conductor, is found dead of cyanide poisoning between Acts 2 and 3 of La Traviata at Venice's La Fenice Opera House. Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice police is called in to investigate. There are plenty of suspects since Wellauer made a lot of enemies on his way to the top.

An engaging and professional man in his forties, Brunetti is one of the three highest detectives working under Vice-Questore Giuseppi Patta, a pretentious man of limited intelligence who holds his position because of politics. It's a pleasure to join Brunetti as he picks his way through the investigation, and the somewhat surprising conclusion. One of the things I really liked about this book is that the reader is involved in Brunetti’s thought processes as he works the investigation. By the end of the story readers are intimately acquainted with him, as well as his family, and he seems like a friend.

This is the first mystery in a hugely popular series by Donna Leon that currently has 24 books . It's been on my TBR forever. Now that I've read one I can definitely agree. Leon's Venice is incredibly atmospheric, filled with beautiful buildings, bridges, and, of course, food. The story moves along with leisurely speed over the more interesting parts and briskly over the necessarily drier parts, like autopsy results. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good murder mystery/police procedural. I can't wait to get the next book in the series, Death in a Strange Country.

[dorie.craig · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This mystery was set in Venice and featured detective Guido Brunetti. Brunetti is assigned to investigate when a world-famous conductor is found dead in his dressing room, and poison is found in his coffee. Brunetti goes on to investigate all the usual suspects: the younger wife, the producer, the various singers, an old lover. I liked the character of Brunetti and his wife. It's nice to see a detective in a crime fiction novel happily married. My favorite parts of the book involve Brunetti's discussions with his boss, who is portrayed as particularly dumb. The investigation itself made sense, but wasn't particularly fascinating. A lot of information was collected but not much was relevant to the case. The resolution to the mystery was okay, but I couldn't help but feel the author was being a bit sensational. Certainly a famous man with such habits would have encountered scandal long before he'd reached his advanced age? Or even some gossip? Overall this was a good, satisfying book and I understand why people would enjoy the series. But I don't believe I'll be continuing with this series.

[cybercarotte-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved it! Happy it's part of a really long series. :)

[chazzifrazz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have been interested in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series for a while. When I stumbled upon the first in the series I decided it was time to read and see if I would like it. I did and I do.

Brunetti is a clam man and one who wants to know as much as possible about the victim and their life. When a famous opera conductor dies in his room during the intermission of "La Traviata", it is Brunetti who is to solve the case. Cyanide is the poison, administered in his coffee. Why was such a famous, successful and loved man murdered? Who could do this and why?

Brunetti sets out to find out the answers to these question and what he finds is much more and maybe not so nice. Ex-wives, performers, family members and others all have their stories about him. The picture that starts coming into focus has so many perspectives and suggestions to a number of possible suspects, but it is hard to tie these bits into one coherent picture. Bit by bit things click, as Brunetti slowly unearths the secrets behind this great man.

I plan on reading more from this series. It is set in Venice; a moody and secretive place in Italy. It adds to the mystery.

[jkdavies · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

happy to have guessed the culprit around half way too ;)

[memccauley6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura makes his first appearance in this series set in the tourist mecca. This book is more about the Venetian mindset and way of life than the murder of a famous opera conductor. This wasn't a great mystery, but I enjoyed (most of) it. I have some quibbles with the character development and the reader must be as patient with the slow pacing as the Italians are with bureaucracy.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first in her Inspector Brunetti series, Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon didn’t exactly blow me away. The mystery was pretty straight forward and seemed to require very little sleuthing on the part of the Inspector. I really enjoyed the setting of Venice, and because of that I will most likely continue on with this series at some point. The writing was good but not outstanding in any particular way and I never felt very involved with the characters, they were introduced and imparted their information and then they were gone. I have been assured that these books improve as the series goes on so I will look forward to trying another when I am in the mood to return to Venice.

[danhammang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Realized after the first few pages I realized that I had already read it but I read on. Commissario Brunetti is an unforgettable character. Who could not love and despair over the setting?

[grandpahobo_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The real main character in this book is not the detective, its Venice. Most of the book is devoted to exploring the city and a variety of its residents in detail. If you have been to Venice and love it, I'm sure you will enjoy this more than I did.The mystery itself was pretty weak. I figured out what happened half way through the book, although I did not see the motivation until the end.I will probably try the second one in the series in the hope that the author concentrated more on the story than the setting.

[culturion · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have always enjoyed crime series that evoke and explore a particular place.  To the long running, hard boiled 87th Precinct novels by Ed McBain and the comically observed Roman world of Marcus Didius Falco from Lindsey Davies I can now add the Venetian investigations of Commissario Guidi Brunetti courtesy of Donna Leon.In all three of them it is the central characters and the meticulously described worlds, situated in both time and place, that tug our interest and intrigue as much as the crime.  In some respects the criminal investigation acts simply as a plotting scaffold for this leisurely unpicking of human nature and social milieu.I very much enjoyed this story.  It was a well crafted scenario that was gradually revealed.  Like Venice trapped in the winter missed morality seemed to wobble and fade as the back story to the opening death of conductor Helmut Wellauer, poisoned suddenly during a performance.  Even as I understood the likely whodunnit before Brunetti the final reveal was fascinatingly complex.  More a gradual almost imperceptible glimpse at human secrets rather than criminal mysteries.  The story is allowed to wander and breathe beyond the plot, much as the Venetian police approach their task devoting more time to food, coffee, wine and family than the work of working out who and why.  There is much more to see and say about Venice and her inhabitants to become too obsessed with mere procedure.Consequently reading this book was a pleasure like wandering along a beautiful pebble beach, stopping to pick up and marvel at pebbles that glisten like gems such was my enjoyment of the many well observed and well crafted scenes, moments and phrases along the way.  Leon has a way of prising open a character or emotion with small moments of elegantly, poetic prose. These invite your imagination in.  This was a book I carried everywhere with me looking forward to any moment I could pull it out  and luxuriate in its pages for a while. I enjoyed reading about the 87th Precinct and Falco's Rome seeing the characters and societies change and grow old over time whilst investigating each individual crime episode and I hope reading the rest of this series will prove as pleasurable.  Leon's tale also featured a delight in ridiculing the self important, empathy for those trapped in unenviable situations and sympathy for the tactics people use to get themselves through the day. The novel hovers in time around the late eighties and early nineties and it is curious how quaint a world it seems before the pervasive connectivity of internetworked computers and mobile phones.  The investigative techniques interviewing, walking, messages, gossip, slowly put together records would not be unfamiliar to investigators in Ancient Rome or 1950s American cities.  It will be interesting to see whether the series remains suspended in this time outside the sphere of instant information or gradually incorporates a changing world.