Author:Donna Leon
[Leon's] portrait of Venice and modern Italy is, as always, captivating...The lively conversations between...characters, displaying Leon's sly humour, are a delight. Evening Standard
A Kirkus Reviews Best Mystery 2011
A Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller
__________________________________
A young woman returns from holiday to find her elderly neighbour dead on the floor. A heart attack seems the likely cause, but Commissario Brunetti is not so sure and decides to take a closer look. Soon he discovers that she was part of an organization that cares for abused women and that her apartment was a safe-house.
Convinced that this is the lead he has been looking for, Brunetti begins his search for answers. But as he sets out to discover the truth behind her death, he is drawn into a decades-old story of lies and deceit that has blighted love and ruined lives - and has claimed this innocent woman as its newest victim. Brunetti's investigation takes him deep into the dark heart of his beloved Venice.
[Leon's] portrait of Venice and modern Italy is, as always, captivating...The lively conversations between...characters, displaying Leon's sly humour, are a delight.
—— Evening StandardWith characteristic skill, Leon draws together multiple threads and a well-rounded cast ... With the steady, unsentimental style that has become her signature, Donna Leon keeps us hesitating until the last corner is turned.
—— Times Literary SupplementLeon's clear-eyed descriptions of Venice still make you long to return to the calles and campos of the floating city.
—— Sunday TelegraphMore elegant, understated crime fighting from the mistress of La Serinissima...A welcome return to the comfortable characters and locations that her fans have come to love.
—— Independent[Leon] is a master at weaselling her way into the venal byways of human selfishness and laying them bare. ... There's a quietness to the crimes here that is more powerful than outlandish violence, and which points to the philosophical bedrock from which Leon so effectively works.
—— Scottish Sunday HeraldA compelling mystery... I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an intelligent page turner
—— Farm Lane BooksIn addition to creating a cleverly calibrated and creepy murder mystery, Dymott has also fashioned a neatly tailored exploration of the desperate psychology of loss... This is a cunning, sharp first novel that revels in keeping one in the dark
—— Independent on SundayWholly absorbing
—— Evening StandardWonderfully unique
—— The TimesIt’s rare to feel so completely inside someone’s head
—— PsychologiesElanor Dymott's arresting debut...combines the pleasures of a thriller with an elegiac meditation on the trials of youth
—— The LadyA dark clever campus novel that draws the reader into a skilfully woven web of half-told stories... Crafted and elegantly written
—— MetroDymott’s capacity to conjure striking imagery is exceptional. This is more than a murder mystery. It’s an examination of the subjectivity of accounts of truth. It’s a desperately moving love story about a lonely man who finds salvation in another only to have his idyll destroyed. It's a tale of revenge, served cold and deadly
—— IndependentThis is a love story, told in reverse, a haunting tale of youth and lost love, and a poetical thriller.A powerful debut and a distinctive voice
—— Tom HollanderElanor Dymott’s gorgeous debut novel is a murder mystery that’s also a brilliant meditation on love and memory and loss. Like the Robert Browning poems her characters read at Oxford, the book is spooky, lovesick, dark, and lush, its narrator circling obsessively back on the death at its heart
—— Maile MeloyAn irresistible blast of an opening which never disappoints in a journey into a complex knot of intense and ultimately destructive relationships from which the murder that is the dark core ofThis excellent debut novel distills
—— Jon SnowA beautiful, lucid nightmare of a book. A mystery of love and murder that is elegantly written, disturbing, always compelling, and lingers long in the mind
—— Adam FouldsA literary thriller wrapped up in a whodunit love story, Elanor Dymott's debut makes for compulsive reading. The complexity of the plot put me in mind of The Secret History;
it deserves to reach just as wide an audience
Every Contact Leaves a Trace is beautifully paced, from the graphic event at its start through all its shifting possibilities to its strange, logical conclusion. It is a marvelous book
—— Bernard O’DonoghueErudite debut
—— IndependentThis murder mystery...gripped me with unusual force... This novel sucks you in beautifully, and will not let you go
—— Evening StandardThis is a class act which unveils its secrets as tantalisingly as a courtesan
—— John Koski , Daily Mail IrelandWonderfully evocative of Oxford, this is a love story and a mystery that will keep you guessing
—— Good Book GuidePart love story, part murder mystery… Dymott’s novel is ample proof of the literary flair that lurks within some lawyers
—— Alex Wade , The TimesOne of the best books I’ve read this year
—— Edinburgh Evening News