Preview
  • Friends in High Places

  • A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery, Book 9
  • By: Donna Leon
  • Narrated by: David Colacci
  • Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (684 ratings)

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Friends in High Places

By: Donna Leon
Narrated by: David Colacci
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Publisher's summary

In Friends in High Places, Commissario Guido Brunetti is visited by a young bureaucrat investigating the lack of approval for the construction of Brunetti's apartment years before. What began as a red-tape headache ends in murder when the bureaucrat is later found dead after a mysterious fall from a scaffold. Brunetti starts an investigation that will take him into the unfamiliar and dangerous areas of drug abuse and loan-sharking, and will reveal, once again, what a difference it makes in Venice to have friends in high places.

©2000 Donna Leon and Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich (P)2012 AudioGO, Ltd.
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What listeners say about Friends in High Places

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

If this is series' best, I won't try any others

It starts with three chapters about Venice bureaucracy over building permits so I seriously considered giving up. But then the police procedural kicks in as a bureaucrat ends up dead. It’s a solid, very well-written, kind of high-brow mystery with a well-considered philosophical discussion about using friends to get out of legal trouble, for things small and big. This is supposed to be her best book in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series, winning a Silver Dagger award. But it just didn’t compel me enough so I don’t think I'll read more. And, frankly, the gender dynamics were sexist — example: Brunetti and his wife Paola both work full-time jobs but she does the cooking and cleaning, and he stands there watching while she does it. Bechdel test: Fail. Grade: B

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of her best...

Where does Friends in High Places rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Have always liked her stories of Comissario Brunetti and descriptions of one of my favorite cities, Venice. I think Donna Leon is perfecting her craft with each book, and Friends in High Places absolutely finds her at the top of her game. David Colacci is one of the best narrators working today.
The story itself was fast moving, had enough characters to make it interesting but not confusing, and kept my interest throughout.
Am looking forward to her next and next and next!! Keep them coming, Miss Leon!!

What did you like best about this story?

Nice pace...great characters throughout.

What about David Colacci’s performance did you like?

100% wonderful! Best in the business.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Brunetti & Venice...totally Win/Win!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Never being able to guess the ending

I enjoyed the multi- layered characters in the story. Keep me engaged and interested to the end.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Corruption and the abuse of power in Venice

In what may be the quintessential Guido Brunetti novel, our hero faces unanswerable questions of right and wrong in both his personal and professional lives.

I will confess to being a die-hard Brunetti fan, but within the series not all books are created equal. This one will fall into my top three.

We see plenty of the Brunetti offspring and of two of my favorite female characters in contemporary fiction - Guido's aristocratic wife Paola and the power-behind-the-throne at the questura, Signorina Elettra.

Although Brunetti often despairs of the convoluted bureaucracy of Venice, here he becomes completely entangled within its strangling tendrils. Against his better judgement, he uses his connections and social debts to uncover the truth regarding the death a man he met in oddly upsetting circumstances. Along the way, he drags many others into the maelstrom he started.

David Colacci is Guido Brunetti to my ear. As always, he does a fine job with this book giving personality to my favorite Venetian Commissario.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Friends in High Places

I love this book in the Guido Brunetti series! It was / is very interesting. The details in this book (and all of the other ones) is very good. It doesn’t matter if you listen to the book series in order they are stand alone books in the series so they don’t build up on each other.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

not her best

book started well but the ending really unraveled. i would pick another of her books- they’re usually great. it feels like she had to make a deadline or something and just added an ending without thinking it all through

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Another burnetti masterpiece

Clever execution of a good story.
I love Donna Leon's story telling.
A terrific listen- captivating till the last three minutes.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Not the best in the series

An "issue" mystery, becomes a bit prosaic and maudlin, esp if you have personal experience with family or friends who are addicts. Well worn territory. Still, love her work and plenty to enjoy regardless.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic!

Loved it! Enjoyed it thoroughly...looking forward to the next book in the series ... Bravo!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Always most enjoyable

Enjoy and Look forward to listening the narration is wonderful.the depth of the story line is most important.

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