Trace Elements: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery

Venice Commisario of Police Guido Brunetti and his partner Claudia Griffoni are called to the bedside of a dying woman as this latest outing (after Unto Us a Son Is Given) begins. When they arrive at the hospice, the patient is only able to tell them that her late husband, who supposedly died in a motorcycle accident, was killed over “bad money.” She dies before she can tell them more. They investigate and learn the husband had worked at a company that monitored water quality in the area and was noted for his rectitude. Braving the summer heat, the detectives keep digging in an effort to find out what money the wife was talking about and if—and why—someone might have wanted her husband dead. The heat and blinding sunlight reflecting off the buildings and water become characters, too, in Leon’s well-crafted, atmospheric mystery.