Commissario Guido Brunetti returns with a gripping and powerful case about the murkiness of power and a test of loyalties

'Perfectly crafted . . . this only proves what a truly great writer [Leon] has become' Mark Sanderson, The Times

'One of the most subtle and exquisite detective series ever' Washington Post

When two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s campi, the son of a local hero is implicated. But when Commissario Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy foreigner to vet this man, Monforte, for a job, he discovers that Monforte might not be such a hero after all.

This seeming contradiction, and a brutal attack on one of Brunetti’s colleagues by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti’s attentions. Soon, he discovers the sordid hypocrisy surrounding Monforte’s past, culminating in a fiery meeting of two gangs and a final opportunity for redemption.

A Refiner’s Fire is Donna Leon at her very best: an elegant, sophisticated storyteller whose indelible characters become richer with each book, and who constantly interrogates the ambiguity between moral and legal justice.

Crime writing of the highest order * Guardian *
One of the best European novelists around -- Amanda Craig
The series that has shadowed Brunetti for three decades is an epic achievement * The Times *
One of the most subtle and exquisite detective series ever * Washington Post *
This is Donna Leon at her very best, with rich characters and elegant, sophisticated storytelling * Dead Good Books - The best crime and thriller books of 2024 *
Only in a Donna Leon novel could you find Tacitus (“They make a desert and call it peace”) and Nancy Sinatra cited on the same page. You never know what she’s going to say next. If her increasingly sardonic wit provides more surprises than the perfectly crafted plot, this only proves what a truly great writer she has become. -- Mark Sanderson * The Times *
Where else but Venice would you find a policeman who reads Proust, appreciates the beautiful things in life and cannot work on an empty stomach? . . . Like many of her readers, while I came for the crime, I stayed for the characters and Italian culture. -- Claer Barrett * Financial Times, Lunch with the FT *

Donna Leon is author of the much-loved, best-selling series of novels featuring Commissario Brunetti and one of The Times' 50 Greatest Crime Writers. Widely considered one of the best detective series ever, with admirers including Ursula K. Le Guin and Val McDermid, the Brunetti Mysteries have won numerous awards around the world and been translated into thirty-five languages.