The Italian detective Commissario Brunetti takes on another intriguing, but personal case in Donna Leon's Acqua Alta, an atmospheric murder mystery filled with the sights and sounds of Venice. Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura is shocked to hear that his friend and art historian, Brett Lynch, has suffered a savage beating. The attack, in the beautiful palazzo home of Flavia Petrelli, reigning diva of La Scala, had come with a message: 'Don't keep that appointment with Dottor Semenzato.'Then, with the storm clouds gathering fast over the city, a man's body is found . . . The fifth novel in the Commissario Brunetti Venetian crime series, which also includes The Anonymous Venetian and So Shall You Reap. 'A splendid series . . . with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can almost smell it' – Sunday Telegraph