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The Jewels of Paradise Audiobook
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(4.00) - 114 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Donna Leon has won heaps of critical praise and legions of fans for her bestselling mystery series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, one of contemporary crime fiction's most beloved characters. With The Jewels of Paradise, Leon takes readers beyond the world of the Venetian Questura in her first stand-alone novel.
Caterina Pellegrini is a native Venetian, and like so many of them, she's had to leave home to pursue her career elsewhere, mostly abroad. With a doctorate in baroque opera from Vienna, she lands in Birmingham, England, as a research fellow and assistant professor. Birmingham, however, is no Venice, so when she gets word of a position back home, Caterina jumps at the opportunity. The job is an unusual one. After nearly three centuries, two locked trunks, believed to contain the papers of a once-famous, now largely forgotten baroque composer, have been discovered. The composer was deeply connected in religious and political circles, but he died childless, and now two Venetian men, descendants of his cousins, each claim inheritance. With rumors of a treasure, they aren't about to share the possible fortune.
Caterina has been hired to attend the opening of the trunks and examine any enclosed papers to discover the "testamentary disposition" of the composer. But when her research takes her in unexpected directions and a silent man follows her through the streets, she begins to wonder just what secrets these trunks may hold. The Jewels of Paradise is a superb novel, a gripping tale of intrigue, music, history, and greed.
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"Very interesting, if talky, exploration of a seemingly tyrannical world ruled by religion. It does an excellent job of setting up the society only to turn everything you thought about it on its head. Well worth the read."
— Chris (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“The Jewels of Paradise is as much a tale about a young woman wising up and learning to fight more effectively for her own happiness as it is a mystery.”
— Washington Post -
“From a masterful writer, The Jewels of Paradise is a superb novel, a gripping tale of intrigue, music, history, and greed.”
— Atlantic Monthly Press -
Cassandra Campbell has a melodic voice and fine, fluid Italian, both important attributes for the narrator of Donna Leon’s first stand-alone mystery. Campbell’s pacing honors the novel’s andante tempo…This is a literary departure for Donna Leon, which will please some, but not all, of her fans.
— AudioFile -
“Leon spread[s] her wings, and she writes persuasively about music.”
— Library Journal -
“Fascinating…it boasts the same sensitivity to human behavior that distinguishes her Guido Brunetti series.”
— Booklist
Awards
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A New York Times bestseller
The Jewels of Paradise Listener Reviews
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" Start was interesting the middle was boring but the last part was good "
— Nayla, 9/27/2013 -
" I enjoyed this one. It's been a long time since I read it, though. I should give it a reread. "
— Charles, 9/6/2013 -
" Read more than once, I think, in junior high. Reread 25 November 2011. "
— Libby, 1/12/2013
About Donna Leon
Donna Leon is the author of the much-loved, New York Times bestselling series of mystery novels set in Italy featuring Commissario Brunetti. She was named one of the London Times' 50 Greatest Crime Writers. The Brunetti Mysteries have won numerous awards around the world, including the CWA Silver Dagger for Fiction, and hsbr been translated into thirty-five languages.
About Cassandra Campbell
Cassandra Campbell has won multiple Audie Awards, Earphones Awards, and the prestigious Odyssey Award for narration. She was been named a “Best Voice” by AudioFile magazine and in 2018 was inducted in Audible’s inaugural Narrator Hall of Fame.