Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander

Historical Mystery

What Goodreads says:

"Years ago, Emily's childhood nemesis, Emma Callum, scandalized polite society when she eloped to Venice with an Italian count. But now her father-in-law lies murdered, and her husband has vanished. There's no one Emma can turn to for help but Emily, who leaves at once with her husband, the dashing Colin Hargreaves, for Venice. There, her investigations take her from opulent palazzi to slums, libraries, and bordellos. Emily soon realizes that to solve the present day crime, she must first unravel a centuries old puzzle. But the past does not give up its secrets easily, especially when these revelations might threaten the interests of some very powerful people."

Death in the Floating City continues to showcase the writing talent of Tasha Alexander.

The Plot:  Look for multiple red herrings as the story progresses.  There are two stories in the book: one in the present and one in the past.  They are related and are the reason for the murder. 

The Characters:  Emily has center stage in this story.  Colin is there but often in an off stage role.  Emma, the old friend who ask for help is not seen very often.  The story is sprinkled with interesting characters from now and from the past.  As usual in the Lady Emily stories characters are introduced and developed in a way that adds to the mystery.  Venice with its history and location is an important character in the book.

The Writing:  Very well written.  The story moves along at a nice pace and the surprises are there to move everything along. 

The Setting:  Venice is a great city for a mystery.  As you follow Emily you get a very good idea of the layout, the history and the character of Venice.  I had a very good feel for the location and how it was important to the story.

The Back Story:  This is book seven in the series.  Only Emily and Colin were characters from the previous books.  That made it easy to get into the story.  This is an easy book to read as a stand-alone as the history in previous books is not a big factor in Death in the Floating City.

I found Death in the Floating City to be a great addition to the Lady Emily series.  If you are already a fan of the series you will enjoy the story and if this is your first book in the series you will want to find the previous six.

Minotaur Books published Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander in 2012.

Musing Monday, August 19, 2013.

Musing Mondays (http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/) asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits. • 
Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
 • Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
 •Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
 • Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I am reading Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander.  This is a Lady Emily Mystery.  I love the series and checked the book out at my local library.  I just started and already want to warn Lady Emily to not trust Emma Callum.  I just think that a cat does not change its spots and Emma is still a person you should not trust.  The book is set in one of my bucket list places to visit, Venice and the setting for another of my favorite mystery series, the Commissario Guido Brunetti books.

Fatal Remedies a Commissario Guido Burnetti Mystery by Donna Leon

Mystery/Audio Book

Fatal Remedies is the 8^th book in the Commissario Guido Burnetti series but the first one I have seen.  Fatal Remedies does a very good job of standing alone.  Until I finished listening and looked Fatal Remedies up on Goodreads I had no idea there were so many previous books and when I went to the author’s web site I found that there are now 21 books in the series.  Now that I know I will be looking for some of the previous books and my poor TBR pile will continue to grow.

The characters in this series are great. Burnetti’s boss Vice-questore Patta is incompetent at best.  Sergente Vianello is a great sidekick.  For me one of the best characters in the books was Signorina Elettra, Patta’s secretary.  She is the glue that holds everything together.  A whiz at the computer she can find whatever information Burnetti needs.  She outmaneuvers Patta and does what ever she wants.  Paola, Burnetti's wife also play a significant part in the book.

The mystery arrives in several layers and kept my attention throughout the book.  It looked for awhile like the bad guy was going to get away with murder but that did not happen.  I loved the way Burnetti finally found a solution.

For me one of the best parts of the book was the way everything Venetian was included in the book.  I wanted to go visit after reading the book and saw on the author’s web site that there are walking tours of Burnetti’s Venice.

Donna Leon has lived in Venice for over 25 years and in Fatal Remedies she makes the city come alive.

Here is the Goodreads summary:

 In this eighth Donna Leon police procedural set in Venice, honest cop Brunetti finds himself, for once, bending the rules severely. His wife, Paola, has been arrested for vandalism and malicious damage. She has, of course, acted out of the highest of motives--the tourist agency whose windows she smashed specialises in trips for unaccompanied men to the Far East. But just how far is it legitimate to go when faced with something like sex tourism? And how can Brunetti pursue justice with his wife taking the law into her own hands?

This has all of Leon's regular cast of characters--Brunetti's indolent and corrupt superior Patta, only too pleased to use his zealous commissario as a scapegoat, and Paola's somewhat sinister father, Count Falier, one of the men who, for good and ill, run the city of Venice. As always, the plot switchbacks from crime to crime and issue to issue. Leon's endlessly superior capacity for leading her readers up a variety of garden paths has rarely been so clearly on display. Above all, it shows what has been one of the more attractive marriages in modern detective fiction under serious stress for the first time; these have always been detective stories that offered more rewards than those of crime and punishment and this one is no exception.

Sound Library produced the audio book of Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon in 2012.

David Colacci was the narrator of Fatal Remedies.