Aqua alta

When Brett Lynch, an American archaeologist, is savagely beaten by two well-dressed men on the doorstep of her Venice flat, few besides Brunetti are outraged. Lynch is, after all, a foreigner and a lesbian to boot. But all Venice is galvanized when, two days later, Dottor Semenzato, a prestigious museum curator, is murdered. Brunetti quickly makes the connection between Lynch's attack and Semenzato's killing - both had worked on a celebrated exhibition of Chinese antiquities. The policeman's investigation opens onto the moral sinkhole in which Venice's upper class clandestinely wallows when…