A dead body is found in a field near a slaughterhouse in Marghera, near Venice. At first glance, it appears to be one of the prostitutes who work the area around the abbatoir. But on examination, it turns out to be a man dressed in a woman's red dress and underwear and red silk shoes. The victim has been beaten about the head and face so badly that he is rendered unrecognizable. Marco, with maybe a walk across the Rialto thrown in. "The Anonymous Venetian" has its characters prowl through the passageways of the city's more isolated residential quarters, and there are a lot of cats and stones dripping with moss and arches leading into gloom and then out again to cross bridges. I find the Brunetti family really interesting and fascinating. Their interaction is beautifully done and I particularly enjoy the chemistry between Guido and Paola…. In this case the musician has a terminal disease, however life in its immense sarcasm and cruelty, reminds him , and the love of his life, how small and stupid as a species we are. And how , so many small mistakes lead to desperation and sadness.

The narration by David Colacci in the audiobook edition was fine. Colacci is the regular English language narrator for the series, except for The Golden Egg #22 which is narrated by David Rintoul. 17 of the current 30 books are available for free on Audible Plus. At first, the body is thought to be of a male transvestite prostitute but when it’s identified as a married man and the director of the Bank of Verona, it seems that there is something more than just a prostituted murdered by a client.The August heat has driven many residents out of Venice and nearby mainland cities for vacations in cooler climes, so just as Commissario Guido Brunetti is about to take his family to the mountains, he is asked by the police in Mestre to take charge of a murder case; their own detectives are mostly away on leave. So Brunetti stays behind as his family go to the mountains. Although it was the 3rd book, Dressed for Death was filmed as the 2nd episode "Venezianische Scharade" (Venetian Charade) (2000) of the German language TV series (2000-2019) based on the Donna Leon / Commissario Brunetti series. I was unable to locate a trailer or a copy of the episode. Tony Musante, a reliable American actor, was at his prime when the film was made. He worked a lot in the Italian cinema and never feels out of place. His Enrico is a complex man trying to deal with a horrible situation. Florinda Bolkan, who is Brazilian, made a name for herself in Italy. Her Valeria shows that in spite of her tough exterior, she still has feelings for her former husband. The best thing about this movie is Venice, shown in its less touristy, more intimate corners. Main characters Valeria and Enrico walk their way through the whole city without a specific reason, except promoting the city for your next holiday. I really like the characters of Brunetti and his family. This is the third book in the series and the third one I have read and I find my affection for the characters growing with each installment.

Enrico asked Valeria to come to Venice for mysteryour reasons which he seems reluctant to divulge and while they walk and talk, they have the time to reminisce about their happy past in the city. Unfortunately, their conversation has nothing of the fluidity of movies such "Before sunrise". Enrico seems mean spirited and Valeria mostly angry. After she learns of his disease, she decides to delay her departure and leave town on the 9:30 p.m. express instead of the 6:15 local. That is hardly a universe-shattering emotional decision, but it will have to do. The movie is dubbed so badly into English that only the broadest melodramatic strokes survive the dialog. At one point, the man's entire response to the woman's outpouring of regret is, "Edifying!" Their enigmatic conversations take place all over Venice, however, and there are a lot of locations you won't recognize unless you really Enrico, a Venetian musician and composer, is seen, as the story begins, awaiting for Valeria, his estranged wife at the railway station. He buys red roses to greet her with, but thinks twice about them and throws them away before her train arrives. When they meet, Valeria asks him why has he summoned her to Venice, a city where they met, were happy, got married, had a son, and was the scene of their acrimonious split. He advises her that in due time he will tell her.But the city out of season is another matter. I saw it for the first time during a rainy and cold December, and fell in love with it forever. It is the last city on Earth built to human scale, and designed to satisfy human needs (including the need to be surrounded by beauty). "The Anonymous Venetian" does a very nice, understated job of sinking into the city and giving us a real sense of place. A Venetian musician is affected by an incurable disease. He arranges to meet his wife, who is now living with another man in another city, but does not tell her about his condition. They walk through the streets and channels of Venice. They remember the happy times when they lived together, she is in blissful ignorance of his terminal illness. He has to play a classic concert piece, recently discovered, but with no known composer, the 'Anonymous Venetian', in a recording studio. She finally realizes that she is still in love with him. The case is sordid--a man dressed in women's clothing was found beaten to death in a field near a slaughterhouse, an area known as a rendezvous between prostitutes and factory workers heading home after work. But as Brunetti and the Mestre force begin investigating, it becomes likely that the man was neither a transvestite nor a prostitute. When Brunetti encounters a noted lawyer in the home of a transvestite on their interview list, and Brunetti suspects the man is lying about recognizing the murdered man's photo, the case assumes a different shape. Soon Brunetti is pursuing the strangely anonymous activities of La Lega della Moralita, a charitable group supposedly helping the "deserving poor" find apartments in Venice's labyrinthine real estate world. A massive fraud begins to rise to the surface--and then, on the way home from a routine stakeout, an officer is killed in a hit-and-run accident. It's a very simple story of only two people meeting, talking, quarreling, discussing, trying to come to terms with themselves and with a horrible destiny, that is the very epitome of injustice. If we could have recorded every minute when we fell in love , every gesture, every smile and every Kiss, then maybe we wouldnt have to remind ourselves why we fell so deeply in love.

That being said, this particular entry was not my favorite. I think I was put off in part by the constant references to the oppressive heat and humidity. I do know something about oppressive heat and humidity. It's late May here and our daily temperatures in Southeast Texas hover in the upper 90s F with humidity to match. Working in the garden for an hour requires a complete change of clothes when one comes inside else one drips all over the floor and furniture. So, yes, I do understand the pervasiveness of that particular climatic feature and how it dominates every other consideration, and I can understand that the author felt the need to continually refer to it. I guess I just found that a bit of overkill since I was living it every time I stepped outside. Another reader might have a completely different reaction. As the investigation proceeds, the body count mounts and Brunetti must once again wrestle with the corrupt bureaucracy of Italy where powerful people are able to buy the police and ensure the outcomes that they desire from government offices. Hmm...that does hit a bit too close to home. But this one was GOOD. It was harsher, more sordid and had tougher language and sensibilities in its tone and within Guido's reaction than 90% of all the other 20 plus novels. I can't remember him ever using such base language (foul) or context in any of the others. It's an investigation into the death of a male dressed as a woman and found beaten to death in a field close by the slaughterhouse for cattle, pigs.

It's rather dated in that AIDS is held to an entity definition, treatment that has rather changed in connotations. But the traipsing for inquiry is hardly different than on other cases. Just in that Guido meets many males in the sex trades here. Only two actors ,and it is much to their credit to sustain our interest throughout ;Florinda Bolkan was a beauty legend of the Italian cinema and American Tony Musante often worked in both country (notably in the excellent Dario Argento 's thriller "l'ucello dalle piume di cristallo"1967) . their way to Florence (that cramped warren of traffic jams) in the middle of July. Not surprisingly, they find the city crowded and the canals pungent. You can't expect a city of 250,000 inhabitants to When the pasta was done, he poured it through a colander, tossed it into a serving bowl, then poured the sauce on top of it. With a large spoon, he swirled it round, then went out on to the terrace, where he had already taken a fork, a glass and a bottle of Cabernet. He ate from the bowl. Their terrace was so high that the only people close enough to see what he was doing would have to be in the bell tower of the church of San Polo. He ate all the pasta, wiping the remaining sauce up with a piece of bread, then took the bowl inside and came out with a plate of freshly washed figs. The parallel between dying Enrico and the town itself sinking and turning into silt has always been used , but here it's done in a tasteful way ;for a man without a future, who is afraid of dying in his sleep , clinging to memories is the only thing left to him ; the future is only this child , he won't see growing up, but who maybe will play his records (hence the gift ).