"Brunetti heard a siren shriek out and shatter the tranquility of the night... It was the siren at San Marco, calling out to the sleeping city the news that the waters were rising: aqua alta had begun."

Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura is shocked to hear that Brett Lynch, a friend since a murder case at La Fenice, has suffered a savage beating.

The attack, in the beautiful palazzo home of Flavia Petrelli, reigning diva of La Scala, has 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....

" Donna Leon’s novels pinpoint the charm as well as the corruption of the city. Venice is in the grip of winter floods...very spooky. " —Mail on Sunday

" Smuggling sexual betrayal, high-class fakery and, of course, Mafia money make for a rich brew which froths up to a smashing end and a gruesome death amidst the rising waters... Exactly the right cop for the right city. Long may he walk, or wade, through it ." —Sarah Dunant, Sunday Times