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.
