Falling in Love

Donna Leon’s Death at La Fenice, the first novel in her beloved Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series, introduced readers to the dazzling world of Venetian opera and Italy’s finest living female soprano, Flavia Petrelli—then a suspect in the poisoning of a renowned German conductor. Brunetti kept her out of prison and, in Acqua Alta, went on to save the life of her American lover. In Falling in Love, Flavia returns to Venice and Teatro La Fenice to sing the lead in Tosca, and Brunetti must come to her rescue once again.

Enthusiastic about watching his old acquaintance onstage, Brunetti and his wife, Paola, secure tickets to an early show. The production is stunning, and yellow roses rain down as Flavia receives a standing ovation. But the audience doesn’t see the dozens of bouquets of roses in expensive Murano vases back in her dressing room—or the grotesquely large bouquet left at the door of her apartment when she gets home. An anonymous fan has been showering Flavia with beautiful gifts in London, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, and now Venice, and she is beginning to feel alarmed by the excessive displays of adoration. A few nights later, over dinner at Brunetti’s in-laws’ palazzo, Flavia confesses her growing sense of unease and wonders who her admirer could be. Brunetti promises to see what he can find out. And when a talented young Venetian singer who has caught Flavia’s attention is savagely attacked, he starts to worry that Flavia’s fears are justified in ways neither of them imagined. Brunetti must enter into the psyche of an obsessive and work to stay one step ahead of this mysterious admirer before Flavia, or anyone else, comes to harm.

Exquisitely atmospheric and delightfully suspenseful, Falling in Love brings readers the magic of La Fenice and the opera world Leon knows well and loves, as a star is confronted with the shadowy side of fame.