TRACE ELEMENTS, by Donna Leon

Further delights in the compelling series staring Comissario Guido Brunetti (this is #29). When a dying woman summons the police to her bedside, Guido Brunetti listens to her gasped words, phrases barely intelligible.As a deathbed confession, it isn't very startling. But the phrases haunt Brunetti, and he decides to begin a cursory investigation. One hint leads to another, most of them in another town. Soon, he digs in earnest, unravelling a complex, long in place scheme that endangers an entire area of Italy.
Brunetti is no one-dimensional cop. His family is lively and challenging, his coworkers all lead lives that break into the flow of the Questura, and of course Venice as an entity is alive and threatened to be overrun by increasing hordes of tourists. The quotidian moments are a good part of the charm of these books. The power and poise of Ms. Zorzi is delightful, and Patta is everything we hate about politicians and their self-serving agendas.
While these books can be read as stand-alones, don't deprive yourself of the pleasure of bingeing on the entire series. In addition to the other books (28!), there is a cookbook and an invaluable guide to the pleasures of Venice.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Grove Atlantic for sharing a pre-release copy for this review.