Acqua Alta

In her recent book, Acqua Alta , Bedell Phillips voyages through a sacred trust, love of a dog and grandmother, serious medical quandaries, sexual escapades, a quest for a good man. This book's odyssey addresses the current solution for historic flooding in Venice, poisonous water chemicals, a Miami drug lord, new age kid's version of blackness, the horror of long terrorist history and ends with the terror of October 7. "The words of Bedell Phillips guide us to discover slivers of the sublime in even nature's subtlest unfoldings, and in the quotidian delights and small cruelties of being human at this specific moment. She also takes an unflinching look at world events with poems that indict the cruelty and carelessness of many people in power. Acqua Alta deftly combines it all in a collection of poems that keep readers surprised while leaving us wiser." - Ellen Benson

The Italian detective Commissario Brunetti takes on another intriguing, but personal case in Donna Leon's Acqua Alta , an atmospheric murder mystery filled with the sights and sounds of Venice. Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura is shocked to hear that his friend and art historian, Brett Lynch, has suffered a savage beating. The attack, in the beautiful palazzo home of Flavia Petrelli, reigning diva of La Scala, had come with a message: 'Don't keep that appointment with Dottor Semenzato.' Then, with the storm clouds gathering fast over the city, a man's body is found . . . The fifth novel in the Commissario Brunetti Venetian crime series, which also includes The Anonymous Venetian and So Shall You Reap . 'A splendid series . . . with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can almost smell it' – Sunday Telegraph

The Italian detective Commissario Brunetti takes on another intriguing, but personal case in Donna Leon's Acqua Alta , an atmospheric murder mystery filled with the sights and sounds of Venice. Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura is shocked to hear that his friend and art historian, Brett Lynch, has suffered a savage beating. The attack, in the beautiful palazzo home of Flavia Petrelli, reigning diva of La Scala, had come with a message: 'Don't keep that appointment with Dottor Semenzato.' Then, with the storm clouds gathering fast over the city, a man's body is found . . . The fifth novel in the Commissario Brunetti Venetian crime series, which also includes The Anonymous Venetian and So Shall You Reap . 'A splendid series . . . with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can almost smell it' – Sunday Telegraph