Rich in history, color, and imagination, a remarkable novel that pairs the seductive lost world of a creative legend with the coming of age of a young girl guided by an artistry all her own In Barbara Quick's luminous novel, eighteenth-century Venice comes to life in all its splendor and decadence. The Grand Inquisitor's spies lurk everywhere, and yet the city's inhabitants abandon themselves to the revelry and masques of Carnival for half the year....

"Donna Leon's bestselling mystery novels have won a multitude of fans for their insider's portrayal of Venice. From family meals to vaporetti rides, the details and rhythms of everyday life are an integral part of this beloved series. But so are the never-ending influx of tourists and the suffocating corruption. Through it all, Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti, a good man who loves his family and his city, has been an enduring figure, but in Earthly...

Attending a performance by an opera star he saved in Death at La Fenice, Brunetti learns that the singer is being stalked by an obsessed fan who subsequently attacks a fellow performer.

Four mysterious words prompt antiques dealer Precious Rafferty to embark on a quest across Europe to uncover their meaning. Preshy, at age thirty-eight, loves her American-in-Paris life, but thinks that she'll never be swept off her feet-until she meets Bennett James. As their whirlwind courtship progresses, though, she realizes that there is much about his business life in Shanghai she doesn't know. Then she receives an urgent message from Lily Song,...