They killed him. It was bad money. A dying hospice patient gasps these cryptic words about her recently-deceased husband. Brunetti softly promises he will look into what appears to be a private family tragedy. He discovers that her husband worked for a company that monitored the cleanliness of Venice s water supply and that he had died in a motorcycle accident. Distracted briefly by Vice Questore Patta s obsession with youth crime in Venice, Brunetti turns to the remarkable research skills of Patta s secretary, Signora Elettra Zorzi. With her help, Brunetti comes to realize the perilous meaning in the dying woman s accusation and the threat it reveals to the health of the entire region. Atmospheric, clever, witty and amusing. If I were only allowed to read one crime series again it would be that of Donna Leon. The Times
