Venice, Italy, has always intrigued writers and for good reason. What setting can compete with a city built on water?
Here’s five mystery books set in Venice. They date from the 14th century onward.
If there’s a theme that unites these novels (besides crime), it’s deception: Venice is a “city of masks” where nothing is quite as it seems. Just when the characters see something, the image shifts, and they wonder if they saw something important or only imagined it. Some characters are enchanted by this quality, others loathe it, and still others find themselves hopelessly entangled in the deception.
City of Masks, by S.D. Sykes
1358. Running from his past, a young lord is dragged into a murder investigation that takes him from the Doge’s palace to Saint Lucia’s “convent-brothel.” I didn’t realize that this was the third book in a series, but I was able to follow the story well enough. It was intriguing (though I disliked the flashbacks) and it was interesting to see Venice at that point in history.
Spy of Venice, by Benet Brandeth
1585. Set during William Shakespeare’s “missing years”, the young actor (not yet playwright) is commissioned as a spy to travel to Venice and ends up being targeted by Catholic assassins. The books is full of references to Shakespeare’s work and the characters are well-developed. I couldn’t quite get into it, but many, many other reviewers enjoyed it.
Island of the Mad, by Laurie R. King
1925. This installment of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes detective series finds the married duo in (guess what!) Venice. They’re hunting for Mary’s old friend’s insane (or is she?) aunt who has gone missing from Bedlam. My review is coming later this week.
Alibi, by Joseph Kanon
1946. Trying to put the memories of WW II behind him, a young officer is visiting his widowed mother in Venice. He was a U.S. Army war crimes investigator, so you can imagine that he’s traumatized and confused. A young beautiful woman comes into his life, they fall in love (of course!), then she accuses his mother’s Venetian suitor of a horrible crime. Kanon puts his characters on the edges of moral boundaries. He forces them to confront their internal darkness, the dissolution of moral absolutes, and questions about guilt, innocence, and justice. And as you’d expect, there are rarely easy answers. (None of the Kanon novels I’ve read have had “easy” answers. All have left me deeply unsettled.)
The Temptation of Forgiveness, by Donna Leon
Modern Venice. Apparently Leon’s Commissario Brunetti series has been around since ’92, but I hadn’t stumbled onto it until now. (Can I blame my schools for making me read classics rather than crime novels?) Better late than never, though. I’m still reading this one. So far, Brunetti’s boss has surprised him with news of leaks from within the Questura (the police force) and a colleague of his wife’s has asked him to “do something” about her son, whom she believes is taking drugs. This is the only book of the bunch that is told from a native Venetian’s point of view.
Bonus book:
Stone’s Fall, by Iain Pears
Only a little bit of the book takes place in Venice and I’m unsure whether this is literary or a mystery or a combination. (Maybe this is a bonus 1/3 book rather than an entire one?) When a self-made financier and arms dealer dies by falling from his window (hence “Stone’s fall”, if you hadn’t guessed), his will references an unknown illegitimate child. His widow requests help from a young, often hapless, investigative journalist. The story works its way back in time: London, 1909, to Paris, 1890, and finally, Venice, 1867. The book was good; the writing quality was high; the characters are well-developed. But the ending felt off to me. That’s a shame because Pears is an excellent writer.
The Orphan’s Song by Lauren Kate
I was fortunate to be able to read this before its release, thanks to #Netgalley and Putnam Books. In 18th century Venice, two musical orphans fight for independence and love in this beautifully written historical novel.