A Refiner's Fire

<p><b>Commissario Guido Brunetti returns with a gripping and powerful case about the murkiness of power and a test of loyalties</b><br><br>'Perfectly crafted . . . this only proves what a truly great writer [Leon] has become' Mark Sanderson, <b><i>The Times</i></b><br><br>'One of the most subtle and exquisite detective series ever' <b><i>Washington Post</i></b><br><br>When two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s <i>campi</i>, 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.<br><br>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.<br><br><i>A Refiner’s Fire</i> 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.</p>