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A British on-line bookstore, TW Books, offers an introduction to Donna Leon and her books.  This is their biography.

About The Author
A New Yorker of Irish/Spanish descent, Donna Leon first went to Italy in 1965, returning regularly over the next decade or so while pursuing a career as an academic in the States and then later in Iran, China and finally Saudi Arabia. It was after a period in Saudi Arabia, which she found ‘damaging physically and spiritually’ that Donna decided to move to Venice, where she has now lived for over twenty years.
Her debut as a crime fiction writer began as a joke: talking in a dressing room in Venice’s opera-house La Fenice after a performance, Donna and a singer friend were vilifying a particular German conductor. From the thought ‘why don’t we kill him?’ and discussion of when, where and how, the idea for Death at La Fenice took shape, and was completed over the next four months.
Donna Leon is the crime reviewer for the Sunday Times and is an opera expert. She has written the libretto for a comic opera, entitled Dona Gallina. Set in a chicken coop, and making use of existing baroque music, Donna Galliana was premiered in Innsbruck in December. Brigitte Fassbaender, one of the great mezzo-sopranos of our time, and now head of the Landestheater in Innsbruck, agreed to come out of retirement both to direct the opera and to play the part of the witch Azuneris (whose name combines the names of the two great Verdi villainesses Azucena and Amneris.

The following review is from the incredibly informative newsletter issued by Geraldine Galentree on new releases of mystery books and providing excellent reviews.  Click on the newsletter's image to visit the newsletter on-line, where you can request to be notified by e-mail when new newsletters are issued.

A NOBLE RADIANCE, A Commisario Guido Brunetti Mystery
By Donna Leon
Penguin Books August 2003
Paperback $6.99
Reviewed by Pamela Palmer of Dallas, Texas, creator of Mystery Events 

This book is the seventh in an eleven book series about Venetian police Commissario Guido Brunetti written by Donna Leon. Ms. Leon is well known in Europe but has, in the past, not been widely read in the United States.  Thanks to an article in the August 10, 2003 New York Times, things may—and should—change.  Everyone needs to meet the intelligent and charming Guido Brunetti, his wife - the equally intelligent and perceptive Paola, a teacher of English literature, and their children Chiara and Raffi. His police colleagues, Signorina Elettra—the highly creative and well connected assistant to Brunetti’s rather unpleasant superior (in title only) Vice Quaestore Patti, officers Vianello, Pucetti and Bonsuan are all people you will want to spend a lot of time with. 

All the Brunetti books are set in Venice and contain remarkably evocative descriptions of that most beautiful of cities.  The weather, side streets, restaurants, canals and buildings are so real you feel you are standing next to the characters the whole time.  Italian politics and their complicated and sometimes corrupt strategies are important to the action of the book.  Is that why Leon is not published in Italy?  It’s a mystery of its very own. 

Each book has a preface from an opera by Mozart.  The preface for A NOBLE RADIANCE is: “The nobility has honesty painted in its eyes” Don Giovanni, Mozart. 

A body has been found in a long-neglected field in Col di Cugnan near the foot of the Dolomites.  The local medical examiner arrives the next day.  As the bones are gathered for autopsy, a ring is found near the body.  It is a signet ring belonging to the Lorenzoni family—a Venetian family with a long history and a son who was kidnapped and never found. 

The day after the discovery, Commissario Brunetti receives the report.  Is it the body of the young Lorenzoni boy kidnapped two years ago?  While waiting for the autopsy results, Brunetti reviews the account of the kidnapping.  He decides not to talk to the parents right away but does interview the young woman who was with Roberto Lorenzoni the night he was taken.  Something about her account seems odd, but he can’t  quite pinpoint what is wrong.  His next call is to Roberto’s cousin Maurizio Lorenzoni to ask the name of the family dentist in hopes dental records will aid in identification.  Maurizio was raised with the family and is part of the family business.  By all accounts, he was the intelligent one while Roberto was the charming but not particularly bright one. 

The dental reports arrive and the body is Roberto’s.   The investigation continues.  Brunetti hopes to find the kidnappers but must tread lightly with the Lorenzonis.  They are a well known and powerful family.  The boy was their only child and the Signora, once a beautiful and vibrant woman, has become prematurely aged and almost speechless.  

Brunetti continues to ask questions, not satisfied with what he has seen on the surface of the kidnapping death.  He gets help from his father-in-law Count Orazio Falier, his brother Sergio, the incomparable Signorina Elettra, and from the writing of Cicero.  Inquiries range as far as Belorussia.  Surprising information is discovered.   

There are more deaths before the book ends.  To talk about them here would give the plot away and I won’t do that. 

Donna Leon is a very entertaining writer.  The characters are believable, the descriptions of Venice and the Italian way of doing everything from eating to politics are accurate. The why and how make sense.  And reading one of her books is a great way of visiting Venice from your comfy armchair. 

Copyright 2003/ 2004 by Geraldine Galentree

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