Guido Brunetti

Guido Brunetti is a fictional Italian detective, created by Swiss/American writer Donna Leon. He is a commissario (detective superintendent) in the Italian State Police, stationed in Venice and a native of that city. Brunetti is the protagonist of (as of April 2023) 32 novels: He also appears in a German TV film series based on these novels. Depiction Brunetti is described by Leon in her first novel, Death at La Fenice, as "a surprisingly neat man, tie carefully knotted, hair shorter than was the fashion; even his ears lay close to his head, as if reluctant to call attention to themselves. His clothing marked him as Italian. The cadence of his speech announced he was Venetian. His eyes were all policeman." He is portrayed as honest, intelligent and diligent in his work. He is happily married to Paola, a university lecturer, and has two children, Raffaele (16) and Chiara (13). He is well-educated (with the title dottore), having read classics at university, and speaks English well, from working in the USA for a period. He is by turns philosophical, intelligent, and compassionate, but also pragmatic, with "native skills of subterfuge, trickery and deceit". Arminta Wallace of the Irish Times has suggested that Brunetti is the antithesis of a crime-fiction stereotype; unlike the typical “shambolic, hard-drinking, over-worked policeman”, he is “presentable and well-read. He gets home for dinner...” and he “seems to enjoy the company of his wife Paola and their kids”. Brunetti is assisted by a Detective Sergeant (later Inspector), Lorenzo Vianello, and by the station secretary, Elettra Zorzi, though he has a difficult relationship with his superior, Vice-Questore Giuseppe Patta. List of characters Some recurring characters from the Brunetti novels.