Book number 14 in Donna Leon's satisfying, wonderfully erudite Guido Brunetti mysteries, again set in a richly evoked contemporary Venice. In this installment, a Senegalese immigrant is murdered in a public square and no some seems to care. Brunetti's young daughter dismisses the case with a breezy comment that he was only a vu compra (immigrant peddler). This, as you might imagine, leads to interesting questions of race and class. This is the Venice of gossip and incompetent politicians and corruption, not some white-washed paradise.  (ITL615, $7.99)

A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery