Dressed for Death (Commissario Brunetti Book 3)

Dressed for Death is Book #3 in Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series.“Commissario Guido Brunetti’s hopes for a refreshing family holiday in the mountains are dashed when a gruesome discovery is made in Marghera - a body so badly beaten that the face is completely unrecognizable. Brunetti searches Venice for someone who can ID the corpse but is met with a wall of silence.”Tenacious, hard-working Commissario Brunetti is, of course, the star of this series. But the city of Venice is a major character in its own right.A new character is introduced, Patta’s new secretary, Elettra Zorzio. She is a welcome addition.The language, the culture, the endless food and drink, the glimpses of Italy, good mysteries - a series excellent for reading. ****

I really love Commissario Brunetti! And, of course, I really despise Patta. I am glad I already have book #4!

I have read many of her Commissary Brunette books but this one was just the best. To watch him tenaciously work the case until he finally gets the bad guy is just so much fun. I also enjoyed seeing Patta's secretary, Electra, enter the series as she is such a delightful character. I am glad that I still have more of these to read as I shall be sad when I have read them all.

One forgets the Brunetti series is in a procedural structure due to the action woven throughout. The murder set in the transvestite sex trade mixed the characters from the elite to the street.

I love the characters in this series. Guido and his family and his co-workers. I love the language of the book, the glimpses of Italy. And the mystery was great. There were some twists and turns and ended nicely.

Immensely readable, and captured my attention in spite of the blather about “transvestism.” It would be five stars if not for that. Shame. Venice as always with these books is one of the main characters.

A man, his damaged face making his identity difficult, is found dead in a field. The bright dress and his red pumps identify him as a transvestite, most likely one of the prostitutes who roam the city. Patta, Brunetti’s superior, is experiencing drama in his own life and is happy to pass the murder off as a simple street crime. Brunetti, however, ponders who would find an out-of-shape, middle-aged man attractive. When he discovers that the victim’s legs were shaved after his death and that he is a banker, he realizes that this is not a simple murder of someone working the streets. By then, Brunetti’s wife and children have left for their yearly vacation without him, and he is left to figure it out. Which he does, of course.

I have read a number of the Brunetti cases later in the series. This one is very early, so the appearance of Elettra being just hired was an interesting surprise. The story of Patta and his wife was also a surprise, and shows a side of Patta unknown in later episodes. As we find out if you keep reading Leon’s books, Brunetti never gives up. In this case it seemed all of his work was to be in vain until the very last minute.

A well written mystery, third in the Brunetti series. This is a US published novel of The Anonymous Venetian; which is available more cheaply on Amazon than Dressed for Death. I shall be more careful in future and check the publisher in the product description.

What a dismal waste of time. This is "The Anonymous Venetian", which I bought on its publication in 2005 and enjoyed. Why do Pengiun publish (and Amazon sell) an old book, under a new Dressed for Death (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries)  title with no warning to prospective buyers? Well done on being both stupid and unethical at the same time. Dressed for Death (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries)

In common with your most critical review, I agree it is almost a con not to indicate to the purchaser it is a reprint of 'An Anonymous Venetian'. That review was written in 2005, and people like me are still being caught.

I'm a fan of Brunetti (and Leon, obviously) and have probably read 10-12 of the books, but not in order. This one, I think, might be the apogee of her writing. Good plot but somehow just better written than various of her other books. You almost sweat with Brunetti as he makes his way around a humid, hot August Venice. Even Pata, his superior, seems human in this one (in others he's a bit of a cardboard character). I thought it might be a later work, but the introduction of Senorita Electra says otherwise. A good read.

Bettino Cola discovered the shoe, then the body wearing the other shoe, behind the abattoir where he was a butcher. The police discovered that the body in the red dress wearing the red high heels was a man. Whereas the body wasn’t found in Commissario Guido Brunetti’s Venice he was asked to investigate the case due to a shortage of officers at the scene of the crime. His investigation led him to a convoluted mixture of gay prostitutes, illegal rent scams, and illicit bankers controlled by some of the most important citizens of Venice and he was required to move with the utmost discretion and diplomacy through the layers of power to solve the case. This was a very interesting exploration of Venice and the morals of a society that is new to me. I enjoyed it a lot.