Blood from a stone

Description

An unidentified African street vendor is executed in front of tourists in the middle of Venice. Guido Brunetti, the policeman who usually must solve the problem, is further challenged when other Italian agencies get involved. In parallel with the plot narrative, the characters reveal the societal conflicts and confusion in their attitudes toward legal and illegal immigration and how it is changing life in Venice.

First Sentence

Two men passed under the wooden arch that led into Campo Santo Stefano, their bodies harlequined by the coloured Christmas lights suspended above them.

Description

On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a street vendor is killed in a scuffle in Campo San Stefano. The closest witnesses to the event are the tourists who had been browsing the man's wares before his death-fake handbags of every designer label. The dead man is one of the many African immigrants purveying goods outside normal shop hours and trading without a work permit. Like everybody involved, Commissario Brunetti wonders why anyone would kill an illegal immigrant.

Subjects

Genres

• Fiction

Other Editions

• Blood from a stoneRB Large Print2005-01-01
• Blood from a stoneAtlantic Monthly Press2005-01-01
• Blood from a StoneWilliam Heinemann2005-03-03
• Blood from a StoneAudio CDRandom House Audiobooks2005-03-03
• Blood from a StoneHardcoverAtlantic Monthly Press2005-04-10
• Blood from a Stone (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries)Audio CassetteSound Library2005-05-01