A painting of masked revelers at the Venice carnival has a secret: to stare into the painting is to play dangerously with the unseen demons it hides, and become the victim of its macabre beauty.

Venetian police captain Kat Tapo investigates an eerie ritualistic murder with ties to a Cold War cover-up and a malevolent Internet virus.

In sixteenth century Venice, the famed makers of Venetian glass faced death if they tried to leave the island... but one man schemes to outwit the enforcers of the edict. In 1958 Venice Beach, California, and in today's Venetian casino in Las Vegas, other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret. As the three stories weave together through time and space, the reader is drawn into a world of violence, and obsession.

When Zara Silk flies into Venice to play the lead role in the film CAPTIVE COUNTESS, she is instantly beset with problems. Rick Crane, the director, is openly hostile. Worse still are the threats from Wallis Bond, a fading superstar, who has her sights on playing the Countess herself. Her savage plot, to force Zara to quit, pitches the young star into a nightmare of conflict. Then, amazingly, Rick steps in to beat Wallis at her own game...

"Caroline Grant is struggling to accept the end of her marriage when she receives an unexpected bequest. Her beloved great-aunt Lettie leaves her a sketchbook, three keys, and a final whisper ... Venice. Caroline's quest: to scatter Juliet "Lettie" Browning's ashes in the city she loved and to unlock the mysteries stored away for more than sixty years. It's 1938 when art teacher Juliet Browning arrives in romantic Venice. For her students, it's a...

"In Venice, where she's just completed a routine assassination, Villanelle receives a late-night call. Eve has discovered that a senior intelligence officer is in the pay of the Twelve-the secretive and subversive organization that employs Villanelle-and she is about to debrief him. As Eve interrogates her subject, desperately trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, Villanelle moves in for the kill. The duel between the two women intensifies,...

"In his many years as a commissario, Guido Brunetti has seen all manner of crime and known intuitively how to navigate the various pathways in his native city, Venice, to discover the person responsible. Now, in Transient Desires, the thirtieth novel in Donna Leon's masterful series, he faces a heinous crime committed outside his jurisdiction. He is drawn in innocently enough: two young American women have been badly injured in a boating accident,...

Venince, 1736. Violetta has a secret: When she climbs out of her window at The Hospital of the Incurables, the revered music school and orphanage that has always been her home, she can look out over the city and dream. But when she stumbles upon Mino, a violinist from the boy's hall who also seeks solace in the skyline, she feels a surprising connection. The two begin a passionate duet that will transform their lives. Yet, as Mino becomes determined...