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By its Cover: A Commissario Guido Brunetti…
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By its Cover: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery (edition 2014)

by Donna Leon

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
9124423,115 (3.63)56
One afternoon, Commissario Guido Brunetti gets a frantic call from the director of a prestigious Venetian library. Someone has stolen pages out of several rare books. After a round of questioning, the case seems clear: the culprit must be the man who requested the volumes, an American professor from a Kansas university. The only problem--the man fled the library earlier that day, and after checking his credentials, the American professor doesn't exist. As the investigation proceeds, the suspects multiply. And when a seemingly harmless theologian, who had spent years reading at the library turns up brutally murdered, Brunetti must question his expectations about what makes a man innocent, or guilty.… (more)
Member:CptKirk
Title:By its Cover: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery
Authors:Donna Leon
Info:Atlantic Monthly Press (2014), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 237 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:Brunetti, Venice, detective, mystery

Work Information

By Its Cover by Donna Leon

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English (37)  Spanish (4)  Catalan (1)  German (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (44)
Showing 1-5 of 37 (next | show all)
This is my first look at the Brunetti series, and I enjoyed it. I'm not sure, though, whether it's because the writing smoothly carried me along, or because I liked Brunetti as a character, or because at the center of mystery are rare books. So I'll try another one sometime. Is this really the 23rd in the series?!
A few favorite passages:
He thought of a story, surely apocryphal, he had once heard about some American movie star - was it Jean Harlow? It was said that when she was given a book for her birthday, she unwrapped it and looked at it, then said, 'A book? I have a book.'
The sun had been crawling across the floor as they sat there, and it now touched the soles of her feet stretched on the table in front of the sofa. She slid down and stretched them farther, wiggling them in the sunlight. 'Oh, that feels good,' she sighed.
Paola obviously had kept some text secreted about her person or under the cushion where she sat, left there in the event that life presented her with the necessity of spending three minutes with nothing to read. ( )
  ReadMeAnother | Mar 1, 2024 |
By Its Cover written by Donna Leon is Book #23 of Ms. Leon’s acclaimed Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery series.
By Its Cover revolves around the stealing and defacing of rare, valuable books and manuscripts.
As always the city of Venice, its history, its art, its culture is the main character of the story.
Commissario Brunetti, his relationships with family and fellow police, his home city of Venice, his love of food and wine and his determination to find truth is also a main thread, a main character of the story and the entire series.
It is hard to put the book down once the reader has begun. It is fascinating to have a front row seat to the logic, the reasoning, the sincerity and dogged pursuit of truth that Brunetti goes through in every case.
A highly recommended title and series ***** ( )
  diana.hauser | Jan 4, 2024 |
Very slow! Book is a series of conversations. The trouble is every conversation is a slow process where every question is followed descriptions of people picking up there coffee cups, looking out the window, leaning backward/forward in their chair, making long pauses before answering the question. ( )
  bmilla92 | Jun 15, 2023 |
The very best in gentle escapist mystery reading....Leon brings the mystery to my level, then takes me through the reasoning. She adds human observation, class observations, amazing architecture and slow food to make an enjoyable read with a conclusion you need to reason but are not left confused by. ( )
1 vote Martialia | Sep 28, 2022 |
addictive-behaviors, Venice, law-enforcement, art-theft, rare-books, greed, lies, librarian, library, family, family-dynamics, friendship, class-consciousness, clergy, false-information, extortion*****

The murder comes near the last quarter of the book. The investigation is of the theft of rare book and even of the illuminated pages cut from books printed in the 16th century. The investigation begins at one particular revered library, but it is soon apparent that it is a problem not only in Venice but in all of Europe. It's the same as with stolen or looted artifacts, the items are stolen to order and sold to private collectors. Well done.
David Colacci continues to be the voice actor who performs the series to the delight of me and other readers. ( )
  jetangen4571 | Jan 22, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 37 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (9 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Leon, Donnaprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Figueroa Evans, MaiaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schmitz, WernerTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Mean as he was, he is my brother now.

Saul, Handel
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For Judith Flanders
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It had been a tedious Monday, much of it spent with the written witness statements about a fight between two taxi drivers that had sent one of them to the hospital with concussion and a broken right arm.
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One afternoon, Commissario Guido Brunetti gets a frantic call from the director of a prestigious Venetian library. Someone has stolen pages out of several rare books. After a round of questioning, the case seems clear: the culprit must be the man who requested the volumes, an American professor from a Kansas university. The only problem--the man fled the library earlier that day, and after checking his credentials, the American professor doesn't exist. As the investigation proceeds, the suspects multiply. And when a seemingly harmless theologian, who had spent years reading at the library turns up brutally murdered, Brunetti must question his expectations about what makes a man innocent, or guilty.

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