This initial outing revolves around the death of world-reknowned conductor, Helmut Wellauer, who dies in his dressing room during an intermission of La Traviata--apparently from cyanide in his coffee. Bruno interviews all the usual suspects even though no fingerprints are found on the coffee cup except the maestro's. Maestro Wellauer was married to a woman several decades younger, his third wife, who is also a doctor. The maestro was also seen arguing with the lead singer, Flavia Petrelli, a star in her own right, who is having an affair with an esteemed women archaeologist, thereby putting her at odds with the homophobic Wellauer. Then there is the conductor, to whom Wellauer promised but failed to deliver a job recommendation for a singing protege. And as Bruno digs deeper he finds that Wellauer's rumored Nazi sympathies during WWII may be the least of his morally questionable behaviors, giving even more people a reason to kill him. In addition to detailed setting and interesting characters, Leon is a masterful writer (she has a PhD in literature) and I love her use of language, e.g. when describing a conversation between Bruno and wife, Paola, she "graced him with with the look she usually reserved for brutal infelicities of language." Wow!
Reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus.
For an in-depth look at Leon and her Brunetti mysteries, see this interview in The Telegraph.
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