Red Hook

When one of his wife's Paola's students comes to visit him, with a strange and vague interest in investigating the possibility of a pardon for a crime committed by her grandfather many years ago, Commissario Brunetti thinks little of it. But when the girl is found dead, clearly stabbed to death, Claudia Leonardo suddenly becomes Brunetti's case, no longer Paola's student. Claudia seems to have no discernible living family - her only familial relationship is with an elderly Austrian woman, who was the lover of her grandfather, but was not herself Claudia's grandmother. Brunetti is both intrigued and stunned by the extraordinary art collection the old woman keeps in her small, unprepossessing flat, and when she in turn is found dead, the case seems to have be about to open up long buried secrets of collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews during the war, secrets few in Italy are happy to explore... As New York basks in a fine Indian summer, no one notices the feral teenagers in Central Park, or the homeless living by the river. Certainly no-one connects them to the Russian gangsters buying into respectability on the East Side, or to the dead Englishman in the swimming pool... Thomas Pascoe, a super-rich, elderly investment banker, is found gorily murdered on the day he was due to return to London, floating in the pool of the most exclusive apartment block in town. As head of the 'co-op' for the luxury apartments, where the residents own the shares, Pascoe had his say in who got to live in them, and who didn't. Could this be a motive for his murder? The investigation takes Artie Cohen to London, where the gripping plot unfolds with a series of murders, an encounter with his longtime girlfriend, and a meeting with a figure from the past. The momentum of apparently tangential events builds to a trademark thrilling conclusion. From the acclaimed author of The Waters of Eternal Youth ,Commissario Guido Brunetti dredges up dark secrets from Italy's anti-Semitic past in his captivating eleventh case. Mystery lovers everywhere are addicted to Donna Leon's ever-honorable Commissario Guido Brunetti and her portrayal of Venice's beautiful but sinister byways and canals. In Willful Behavior , Brunetti is approached for a favor by one of his wife's students. Intelligent and serious , Claudia Leonardo asks for his help in obtaining a pardon for a crime once committed by her now-dead grandfather. Brunetti thinks little of it-until Claudia is found dead. Soon, another corpse and an extraordinary art collection lead Brunetti to long-buried secrets of Nazi collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews-secrets few in Italy want revealed. Neither Commissario Brunetti nor his wife Paloa have ever had much sympathy for the Italian armed forces, so when a young cadet is found hanged, at Venice's elite military academy, Brunetti's close in age to his own son, and contempt and irritiation for the arrogance and high-handedness of the boy's reachers and fellow-students. The young man is the son of an ex-politician, a man of an impeccable integritý all too rare in Italian politics. But as Brunetti - and the eindispensable Signorina Elettra - investigate further, no-one seems willing to talk, as the military protects its own and civilians keep their own counsel. Is this the natural reluctance of Italians to involve themselves with the authorities, or is Brunetti facing a conspiracy of silence? It's A Late Summer Sunday In Downtown New York City, And Artie Cohen Is Getting Married. Watching The Sun Rising Over The East River, He's Content. A Message Comes In From An Old Friend, Sid Mckay, Asking Artie To Come Out To Red Hook In Brooklyn. It's His Wedding Day, But Artie Owes Sid, So He Goes. On Arriving He Finds A Dead Man Spreadeagled In The Water Off The Old Docks. When Sid Eventually Shows Up, He's Scared, Edgy And Evasive, Artie Suspects He's Holding Something Back. Even At His Own Wedding Party, Later That Day, Artie Can't Stop Thinking About Sid. Why Has The Death Of A Vagrant Spooked Him So Much? It's Not His Case, But The More He Digs, The More It Drags Him In, Implicating - And Threatening - His Closest Friends... "Neither Commissario Brunetti nor his wife Paola have ever had much sympathy for the Italian armed forces, so when a young cadet is found hanged, a presumed suicide, in Venice's elite military academy, Brunetti's emotions are complex: pity and sorrow for the death of a boy, close in age to his own son, and contempt and irritation for the arrogance and high-handedness of the boy's teachers and fellow-students. But as Brunetti investigates further he is faced by a wall of silence, as the military protects its own and civilians are unwilling to talk. Is this the natural reluctance of Italians to involve themselves with the authorities, or is Brunetti facing a conspiracy of silence?"--Amazon.com Artie has a taste for girls and jazz and a secret past. He has scarcely returned from a month's leave. His investigations take him first into the heart of the Brighton Beach Russian mafia, and then deeper into the terrifying world of atomic smuggling and the secrets of the lethal but elusive substance known as Red Mercury. When one of his wife's students is murdered, Commissario Brunetti's investigation opens up long-buried secrets of collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews during the war; secrets that few in Italy are happy to explore. When the head of a Manhattan co-op is found beheaded, Artie Cohen begins an investigation that leads him from city to city, culminating in a look at the dark side of charities and a far-reaching conspiracy