Stunning views across the Grand Canal and a hotel suite fit for royalty… Lady Eleanor Swift is having a jolly good time on her Italian vacation, until a gondola ride is cut murderously short!
1924: Lady Eleanor Swift has been on a grand tour around Italy for a month with her butler Clifford. Finally arriving in Venice, she’s thrilled to be attending the famous carnival: all that’s needed is the perfect bejewelled costume for her faithful bulldog, Gladstone. But on her first gondola ride to take in the sights, a passenger collapses into the canal with a knife sticking out of his back.
Eleanor saw an argument break out between the gondolier and the victim, Councillor Benetto Vendelini, and it turns out they’re rivals from the city’s two great families. Vendelini’s murder is sure to reignite their centuries-long feud. While attending a glitzy ball that night, Eleanor learns of a plot to steal a precious family heirloom from the Vendelini household. Is the stolen item the key to solving this baffling murder?
In this floating city of tiny winding alleyways, Eleanor traces the missing heirloom to an antiques dealer in a far-flung corner of town. But when her handbag is snatched by a cloaked thief, she realises the murderer is dangerously close. Can Eleanor unmask this most cunning of killers, before she joins the other victim at the bottom of the Grand Canal?
An utterly gripping historical murder mystery set in Italy, full of intrigue and charming characters. Fans of T.E. Kinsey, Agatha Christie and Catherine Coles will be totally hooked by A Death in Venice!
Buy Link: Amazon: https://geni.us/B0CN6ZXXSBsocial
My Review:
This novel is an entertaining addition to this lovely series, a solid mystery and a love letter to Venice. I loved to see Venice through the eyes of someone in another time and with a different background.
I visited Venice with locals and I still cherish the memories of the less known corners and the atmosphere.
The band of Eleanor and her friend, Gladstone and Clifford plus the ladies, are in Venice during the Carnevale in 1924. There will be murders even if Eleanor is loving the city and what she sees and would prefer enjoy the city and Carnevale.
There’s plenty of twists, feuds that go back in the century and a lot of surprising twists. The book kept me reading and I enjoyed the solution.
The characters are well developed as usual and the solid and tightly knitted plot kept me reading till late in the night.
I cannot wait to read the next one, highly recommended
Many thanks Bookouture for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humour, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
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Scrapping&Playing 
Thanks so much for the review - and it is something of a ‘love letter’ to Venice!
Many thanks for this series, love Ellie, Clifford and Gladstone!