On April 8, 2009, BBC Audiobooks America, will release the audiobook edition of CWA Silver Dagger Award-winner Donna Leon’s newest crime thriller, About Face, a Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery. The audiobook is scheduled for a simultaneous release with the hardcover edition, published by Grove/Atlanta.

Donna Leon’s eighteenth novel opens with Guido and Paola Brunetti on their way to a dinner party at Palazzo Falier. Guido spots a couple up ahead of them, and his curiosity is piqued. The couple—Maurizio Cataldo and his second wife Franca—turn out to be fellow dinner guests, and the young woman is seated across from Brunetti. Initially unimpressed with Franca, Guido is stunned when she casually quotes a line from Virgil. He’s met a fellow reader, and he’s entranced.

Later that week at the Questura, Brunetti is asked for two favors. The first request is from Count Orazio Falier, Paola’s father. Maurizio Cataldo has approached him with a business opportunity, but he’s unsure if Cataldo is trustworthy. He asks Guido to check him out. The next request comes from Maggiore Guarino, a government investigator from the mainland, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage and hazardous waste from the industrial north and other countries. Guarino had a good source—but after sharing a few details about his illegal customer, he was murdered in what looked like a botched robbery. Now Guarino is at a dead end and he needs Guido’s help.

Fears of kidnapping and murder ensue, and things take a shocking, dangerous turn. True to Leon’s form, About Face reveals much about love and regret as it highlights murder and greed.

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Donna Leon has lived in Venice for many years and previously in Switzerland, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China, where she worked as a teacher. She now combines writing with teaching English Literature close to Venice.