Donna Leon sans Brunetti

Encore une fois, elle lui fait des infidélités... En faisant des recherches ce matin, je suis tombée sur un titre que je ne connaissais pas. J'étais quelque peu déroutée car Donna Leon a déjà publié un roman en avril dernier et il n'est pas dans ses habitudes d'en publier deux par an. S'agissait-il d'un titre pour le marché britannique (les éditeurs ont la fâcheuse manie de modifier les titres entre les marchés américain et britannique, allez savoir pourquoi?)? Ma surprise fut grande quand j'ai découvert qu'il s'agissait bel et bien d'un nouveau roman mais qu'il ne s'inscrivait pas dans la série des enquêtes de Brunetti. Le livre s'intitule The Jewels of Paradise et sortira en anglais, en octobre.

Voici la présentation de l'éditeur:

Donna Leon has won heaps of critical praise and legions of fans for her best-selling mystery series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, one of contemporary crime fiction’s most beloved characters. Over twenty-one books this sharp, kind-hearted native Venetian has exposed read­ers to contemporary Venice in all its aspects: its arts and architecture, food and family life, but also its crime and insidious corruption. With The Jewels of Paradise, Leon takes readers beyond the world of the Venetian Questura in her first stand-alone novel.

Caterina Pellegrini is a native Venetian, and like so many of them, she’s had to leave home to pursue her career elsewhere, mostly abroad. With a doctorate in baroque opera from Vienna, she lands in Manchester, England, as a research fellow and assistant professor. Manchester, however, is no Venice, so when she gets word of a position back home, Caterina jumps at the opportunity.

The job is an unusual one. After nearly three centuries, two locked trunks, believed to contain the papers of a once-famous, now largely forgotten baroque composer, have been discovered. The composer was deeply connected in religious and political circles, but he died childless, and now two Venetian men, descendants of his cousins, each claim inheritance. With rumors of a treasure, they aren’t about to share the possible fortune. Caterina has been hired to attend the opening of the trunks and examine any enclosed papers to discover the “testamentary disposition” of the composer. But when her research takes her in unexpected directions and a silent man follows her through the streets, she begins to wonder just what secrets these trunks may hold. From a masterful writer, The Jewels of Paradise is a superb novel, a grip­ping tale of intrigue, music, history, and greed.