Donna Leon’s wonderful Commissario Brunetti and the city of Venice, together, form the core of this intriguing mystery. Ms. Leon lived for 30 years in Venice, and her intimacy with its nuances and character shines brightly.

The book was particularly charming for me because it takes place in what today might be called “old Venice,” although the Venice of 30 years ago was still quite ancient, and perhaps only an American could put it that way.

What I wish to convey is that the Venice in this novel is the Venice before the Euro, before Instagram, before AirB&B, when the city was a vibrant residential community populated with families and diverse neighborhoods, where restaurants catered to locals and stores sold things like groceries. To be sure, the book acknowledges the coming of change, the creep of tourist shops and global fashion brands slowly displacing the neighborhood markets, the sinking of the city, the plumbing problems, whatever. But, those problems haven’t, in this Venice, yet transplanted the rhythms and cultures of the people who live there.

At this risk of sound really damned old, I can’t help but reflect that my spouse and I lived not far from the city in the early 2000s, and visited many times. I count us both lucky for the experience.

The book is also an homage to music and culture, and it’s hard not to pause for a few minutes of opera here and there, or to browse a libretto or two. It’s a highly cultured narrative, with no hint of pandering to lowbrow prejudice or vulgar fascination with savagery. It’s not a cozy by any means, but it’s not gratuitous or pruient, either.

Worth reading for the tourism, but also an enjoyable mystery with enough clues that you just might get there before Commissario Brunetti. But, you probably won’t.

The murder victim, amusingly, seems based fairly closely on the late Herbert von Karajan, although to my knowledge no evidence exists that Karajan shared any of Ms. Leon’s fictional analogue’s more outrageous traits (gosh, we can all hope not).

It’s wonderful to discover a new writer with a long catalog, and I look forward to accompanying Commissario Brunetti on his next case.