Dead in Venice

Crime Grant Finalist

By: Fiona Leitch

Narrated by: Deryn Edwards

Bella Tyson is a famous 40-something crime writer suffering from writer’s block ever since a bitter divorce two years before. When a fan offers her the use of an apartment in Venice, Bella jumps at it, hoping a change of scene will have her writing again. Once there, she soon meets Will, a charming Englishman, who shows her around the city.

Enchanted by both Will and her new surroundings, Bella decides to write a supernatural murder mystery and begins researching local legends and the city’s more sinister side, including an illicit visit to the island of Poveglia, spooky former home of Venice’s asylum. Soon Bella uncovers more than she has bargained for and finds herself enmeshed in a series of gruesome real-life murders that uncannily mirror the legends she is researching.

As she and Will join forces to investigate, real life and local lore merge disconcertingly - for nothing in Venice turns out to be what seems, including Will....

©2018 Fiona Leitch (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

Enthusiastic narration is misleading of the extremely serious topic

Were it not for the extremely serious topic the book is precisely about, I would have thoroughly enjoyed the book. I only read for entertainment and I feel awful and sad reading books that cover this topic. Otherwise, the main character and the setting plus the narration were all very well done.

hope for new series

wonderful narrator. Lots of twists and the plot moves along at a nice clip. Anticipating the next installment.

I Would Give It 20 Stars If I Could

Seldom does a book tick all the boxes and then some..I laughed until the dogs ran out of the room… I shuddered until I had to stoke the fire in the hearth,… and I smiled and positively swooned at the chemistry oozing from the pages…
Humor, mystery, travelogue and love…. Who could ask for more.?!?!?????… ME, please make this a series..

Venice, Vidi, Vici

"Dead in Venice" is a crime thriller that is equal parts page-turner, laugh-inducer and creepiness-creator. And as my commute audiobook, the damn thing kept me sitting in my driveway well after I had gotten home.

The story's fated couple, Bella and Will, are likable despite their flaws (or maybe because of them), and are just plain fun. Bella's internal - and often external - monologue hilariously illustrates the crazy range of the author's voice, while acting as the glue holding the story together. I knew this novel was my cup of tea when Bella (and in turn, the author) made an unashamed reference to another Venetian thriller "Don't Look Now."

The prose of the narrative was transportive, whisking the reader away to Venice's canals, landmarks and restaurants. The author's strong research is evident, as is her love for Venice, crime novels, food, sex, writing, and justice, but not necessarily in that order. The story itself is well-paced, and as labyrinthian and entertaining as the city's streets. Perhaps the real genius of the novel is the author's de novo creation of a set of Italian fairy tales, which adds just a touch of JK Rowling to the narrative.

"Dead in Venice" is a strong freshman effort, and deserves to be made available in print. I can only hope the author's sophomore one ("Dead in New York" perhaps?) is on its way to my library (also read by the talented Ms. Edwards, please). Well done, Ms. Leitch.

It's so meta!!!

I'm not going to elaborate on that title, just listen to the book and you'll know what I mean. This is one of the most original stories I've ever read/heard, and it had me on the edge of my driver's seat the entire 3 hour one-way drive to the big city and back, and when I got home I wanted to know how it ended so I listened to the rest of it with headphones. Do not hesitate to buy this! Also, the narrator brilliantly brings the protagonist and the other characters to life. My only gripe is that the overall volume is quite low so I really had to crank up the car stereo. Hopefully Audible can fix this, and no stars lost for that little nitpick.

Smart Woman making Stupid Choices?

First congratulations to any author getting published. But I need REAL Women in my literature. Someone as accomplished as Bella would not have made any of the stupid choices she did in this book. And the love story is a bit hard to hang onto, since the only thing they share is childhood trauma. Good writing, weak story, excellent performance.

Should have been labeled a romantic mystery

I always check the categories listed below the brief synopsis audible supplies before making a decision. Then I read the reviews. This book was labeled Literature, Fiction and Suspense. It seemed to me the whole story was about romance. I agree with reviewers Deryn Edwards is great, however, I am not interested in the sexual drive of the lead character.

A Delicious Mystery from an Engaging New Author

I was a voracious reader as a youth. I would read anything I could get my hands on, from cereal boxes to People Magazine, from junk mail to The Brothers Karamazov. Its been a long, LONG time since I have enjoyed a work of fiction the way I enjoyed DEAD IN VENICE, which has made writing this review a lot harder than I would have imagined. I am not used to being this entertained by an author who clearly loved every minute she spent writing this book, and it shows in everything from her descriptions of the apartment in Venice and Bella's initial reaction to the city, to the way Bella begins a tentative romance with a mysterious detective who has a few secrets of his own. The calculated shift from Bella's eagerness to explore her new surroundings to the growing tension of what happened on the island is masterfully handled, until I was so far down the rabbit hole that I sat in a parking lot listening to the final chapters to make sure I didn't miss anything that was going on. I can't wait to see what happens next for this author and her main character. DEAD IN VENICE made me fall in love with fiction again, and that is really saying something,

well-written & read but grim

Love the writing but lurid details of deaths and killer motivation not my cup. Will check out another of her books.

I love Fiona Leitch’s writing.

Grim subject that I wasn’t quite prepared for. But loved Bella. The murders are quite gruesome. I love Fiona Leitch’s writing so much that I still loved the book, despite the subject. She is so great at making loveable, funny women lead characters, that I will read all her books.