Donna Leon was born on 09/28/1942 in Montclair in the U.S. state of New Jersey, where she began her university studies later. Since 1965, when she accompanied a friend to Italy, where she continued her studies in Perugia and Siena, Donna Leon has permanently been abroad.

After her studies, she taught English and English Literature, and was a tourist guide in Rome and worked as an advertising copywriter in London in the following years. She taught at schools in Switzerland, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia. Since she refused to cover up during her teaching in Saudi Arabia, she was no longer allowed to work, and she returned to Italy, where she taught at the field office of the Maryland University in the U.S. Air Force Base Vicenza English Literature. Since 1981, Donna Leon lives in Venice, where her novels about the sympathetic Commissario Guido Brunetti play.

Her passion for the opera (she claims to attend almost every important production in Europe, where she particularly appreciates the works by George Frideric Handel) led her to her first novel about Commissario Brunetti. During the visit to a rehearsal in La Fenice, the Venetian opera house, a companion complained to her that he could kill the conductor. Donna Leon reassured him that she would do it for him in a novel, after which both began searching the opera house for possible escape routes for the possible perpetrators.

In the following years she wrote Death at La Fenice, the first novel about Commissario Brunetti in which she processed the experience. In subsequent years, Donna Leon has written a book every year and is one of Germany's most successful authors of bestsellers.

On her special request, her books were not published in Italian, even though, or rather precisely because, she herself lives in Venice. She justifies this desire with the fact that her fellow Venetians could not handle it impartially. This is very important to her, especially since she receives suggestions for new stories from them. In addition, she argues that her books would often criticize the political situation of the country and she does not want to create astrife, because she is not a native Italian.

The stories do not contain any form of lurid brutality or sex. They are just well-told stories with great background and clearly detailed protagonists. These give a wonderful insight into the atmosphere of Venice and are based on a city map researching the sites. The stories are told in general without any stress or hassle and you can’t help but fall in love with the show and wait for each new episode impatiently.

Commissario Brunetti’s charm lies in the detailed descriptions of his family, his city and his Policia andeveryday life, because they the reader as well as the listener or viewer the feeling that they are there. With each story we learn Guido Brunetti and his family better and we view them as old friends in every book. From the first book in the series, the Venetian Commissario became a great success.

Again and again, Donna Leon received awards for novels about Guido Brunetti, so in 1991 the renowned Japanese Suntory Prize for Death at La Fenice, the 1997 German Crime Prize for A Venetian Reckoning, Palle, Rosenkrantz Prize for Death in a Strange Country and the 2003 International Book Award Corine for Wilful Behaviour.

Donna Leon's books are not only very exciting and entertaining - the audiobooks comprising the cases of Commissario Brunetti also very good and worthwhile, which is also true for the movies released on DVD.

Commissario Brunetti’s Cases

Death at La Fenice. Inspector Brunetti's first case

Death in a Strange Country. Inspector Brunetti's second case

The Anonymous Venetian. Inspector Brunetti's third case

A Venetian Reckoning. Inspector Brunetti's fourth case

Acqua Alta. Inspector Brunetti's fifth case

The Death of Faith. Inspector Brunetti's sixth case

A Noble Radiance. Inspector Brunetti's seventh case

Fatal Remedies. Inspector Brunetti's eighth case

Friends in High Places. Inspector Brunetti's ninth case

A Sea of Troubles. Inspector Brunetti's tenth case

Wilful Behaviour. Inspector Brunetti's eleventh case

Uniform Justice. Inspector Brunetti's twelfth case

Doctored Evidence. Inspector Brunetti's thirteenth case

Blood from a Stone. Inspector Brunetti's fourteenth case

Through a Glass, Darkly. Inspector Brunetti's fifteenth case

Suffer the Little Children. Inspector Brunetti's sixteenth case

The Girl of His Dreams. Inspector Brunetti's seventeenth case

About Face. Inspector Brunetti's eighteenth case

A Question of Belief. Inspector Brunetti nineteenth case

Drawing Conclusions. Inspector Brunetti twentieth case