Death At La Fenice

Dry Drayton Book Group choice for November 2023.

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon is set in Venice and follows the investigation into the death of Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world-renowned conductor, who died from cyanide poisoning during an intermission at La Fenice.  This is the first in an extensive series of novels by Donna Leon about Guido Brunetti the Vice-commissario of police in Venice, who she introduces in this novel. 

Wellauer is portrayed as a moralistic character and prejudiced against gays. He reneged on a deal with the gay director to place a friend of his in a performance and also threatened to tell the lead soprano, Flavia Petrielli’s ex- husband about her lesbian affair with American millionaire archaeologist Brett Lynch, so that Flavia’s abusive ex-husband could gain custody of their children. Brett admits that Flavia saw the conductor during intermission and that they fought about the threats.  Brunetti also learns that Wellauer may have been a Nazi and was definitely a womaniser. He hears about trouble with an elderly former opera singer, Clemenza Santina. He goes to see the singer, who is living in squalor, but she refuses to talk with him about the core of her hatred toward Wellauer.  From his interview with a journalist, Brunetti discovers that Wellauer had indirectly caused the death of Clemenza’s sister, who died from an illegal abortion. Brunetti also uncovers that Wellauer was distracted before his death, seemed estranged from his wife, and learned from doctors that he was going deaf.  So there are a few suspects who would have had reason and opportunity to poison Wellauer but Brunetti discovers that the truth is more obscure.

The group agreed that this was an enjoyable and easy book to read, making it a pleasant contrast to our previous book.  The opera theme was not to everyone’s taste and some members found the book slow to develop as it lacks action.  However, in this crime thriller, the death and its causes are secondary to the development of the characters.  The group agreed that there are two main characters in this book, the first being the Brunetti family who are introduced in this novel and provide an interesting contrast between Guido Brunetti, a career detective and his wife, Paola, with her own significant family wealth and an academic career.  The second character is Venice which is extremely well described with a geographer’s feel for the townscape.  The novel includes good anecdotes which those who had visited Venice could easily recognise.  

Donna Leon has an extensive catalogue and some members of the group have read and enjoyed a number of her books.  She is an American academic who lives and works in Venice and perhaps for that reason there are a few americanisms which appear in the novel which some found jarring.  The story was written around 1990 and the novel is very much of that time.  Some members found that perhaps the later part of the book was over-edited as for them the ending was abrupt and lacked some context.