As others have said here, Venice is a main character of this intriguing mystery. If you have ever visited Venice or dreamed of visiting, you will like this book. The city creeps into every aspect of the novel. While the main character, Anna, must solve the mystery of a death in which she is implicated, Volker hardly gives us a flawless character. More than once, Anna's deceptions lead her into further trouble, a characteristic which makes her all the more interesting. "Venetian Blood" offers us a thoroughly satisfying mystery, with a nice extra touch at the end. ( )

Venetian Blood does the setting justice. I really felt transported to modern Venice and it was done so well. There were no large info dumps but rather small little things scattered throughout the tale showing me what an average day was like in Venice for Anna and her friends.

I also really like Anna’s character. She’s smart, loves her job, and also has some life behind her. She’s 40, heading into a divorce, no kids, and perhaps wondering if she wants a change in her life or not. While I like that she has a degree in astrophysics, I never quite figured out how she ended up working in an office crunching numbers for the US Treasury. Numbers are neat but analyzing radio waves from distant stars sounds awesome! So, yeah, that was a quirk about Anna that I didn’t quite get but then I also know people who got degrees in one area and ended up working in a totally different field. So perhaps that just makes her more human.

Anna has a few friends in Venice, which is good because she has at least one enemy. I did find Margo a little annoying, especially how loose lipped she was about Anna’s business. Then there was Angela, Margo’s pregnant cousin. Angela doesn’t really appreciate the beauty and history she’s surrounded by in Venice.

Even though Detective Biondi is a bit hard on Anna I still liked him. After all, Anna starts off by lying to him and that can tick anyone off in the best of situations. Biondi suspects Anna of murdering a philandering Count Sergio. He’s well known in the art world and also well known for his wandering eye. Unfortunately Anna didn’t check him out before getting to know him and now she regrets that.

I did find Anna’s part in the mystery to be rather sloppy. She lies to Biondi about things that are easy enough for him to check up on and she’s honest with others about her whereabouts that night, which leaves yet another route for Biondi to check up on her. So, yeah, Anna – what were you thinking? No wonder Biondi wants you for this murder.

There’s a little romance in the tale and some action. Considering Anna’s latest fail in having a fling, I was surprised that she was letting herself wander into another one. Again, it seems that Anna isn’t using all her brain cells. Sometimes, I liked this about her because it made her human. Sometimes, I wanted to give her a little smack upside the head.

In the end, it’s the setting that really shines through. Venice herself is the true star of this story. The murder mystery was decent, Anna was likable and approachable, and the side characters were a colorful bunch. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Gabrielle de Cuir gave us a most excellent performance with this narration. There is plenty of Italian throughout this story and it was all well pronounced along with plenty of characters with Italian accents. Her male characters sounded masculine and all the characters were distinct. I also appreciated her various US and UK accents, South American accent, etc. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Christine Evelyn Volker. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it. ( )

Anna decides to take a trip to Venice and visit her friend Margo in order to get her mind off of her impending divorce back in the states. Instead, Anna finds herself in a romantic entanglement with serious complications; furthermore, she is the prime suspect in a murder when the man she slept with is found murdered. Anna's job at the US Treasury is put in danger when she begins to look into the life of Count Sergio Corrin, Anna finds a sordid past entangled with many other Venetians who just may want to kill the man. While Anna desperately searches to uncover any information to clear her name, she reveals some other secrets of the closely-knit Venetian people. Meanwhile, the person who murdered Sergio is still on the loose and is attempting to throw Anna off the trail.

An exciting and suspenseful murder mystery set in the sensuous and mysterious island of Venice. Immediately, I was pulled in by the murder scene, a gruesome murder committed by someone who appears to be female. Then, I was connected to Anna's character. Anna is intelligent and resourceful but has been handed a difficult lot in life, her parents died when she was younger, she has had a miscarriage and her marriage has fallen apart. Venice was made into a sumptuous setting, I could easily image the aging but descendant buildings, the murky canals and small passageways. The suspense grew for me as Anna started digging up the past. Most interestingly, I began to question Anna's reliability as a narrator even as she began to uncover other's motives. Overall, a uniquely woven murder mystery with intricate twists and turns. ( )

What Anna thought would be a relaxing getaway, turned out to be a living nightmare! Anna's "roots" were from Italy and she only had vague memories of living there. After her grandparents deaths, she felt she needed to re-connect with those early "roots". Her marriage had failed and a trip to Italy with a cousin seemed to be the very thing she needed. There was one other reason she needed to go to Italy, one she could yell nobody about. However, soon she was desperate to prove her innocence of a crime she did not commit. Her life, her job and her reputation were on the line. Who could help her?
Because of her unique job skills and connections, there were a few things she could do if she could get a couple of crucial pieces of information.
As she tries to prove her innocence, things increasingly get worse and she stands to lose everything!
The characters are well defined but lacks in creating a feeling of the reader being personally connected to them. The scenes are portrayed in a way the reader can visualize them, but not clearly. The story's "flow" at the beginning is not smooth but improves and "flows" well as the tale progresses. There is a slight ouch of romance and the action is steady, yet, I found it to be quite predictable.
It successfully keeps the reader's attention and each chapter ends in a way which causes the reader to not want to put it down until the last page.
*Reader beware: There is some profanity and sexual situations.

The book was gifted to me with no urging for a positive review. This is my honest review. ( )

***This book was reviewed for She Writes Press via Netgalley & for the Manhattan Book Review

Volker's Venetian Blood weaves alluring language, seductive setting, the charm of shadowed history, and cunning intrigue into a (modern) historical mystery so tantalising you will be swept away from word one.

Anna Lucia Lottol, a financial investigator for the US Department of Treasury falls under suspicion by Italian officials in the death of one Count Sergio Corrin whilst visiting that most beautiful of riparian cities, Venice. In order to avoid being arrested for the murder, Anna begins looking into Sergio's death on her own. It is true, she knew Sergio, had even met him not long before. She turns her own particular skills to her task, digging deeper into Corrin’s finances. Anna knew him to be a money launderer, and thinks perhaps his death was tied to that. Anna’s friend Margo, a journalist, joins her in the effort to clear Anna's name.

The search leads her to some odd places, including the family archives of Count Alessandro Favier, a friend of Margo's, whose house is alive with history, and to Corrin’s Galleria, which currently houses an impressive amount of tribal art from Tanzania, some done by Azizi, a Tanzanian artist Corrin sponsored. While there are plenty with reason to wish Sergio dead, Anna and Margo can find no concrete proof. Gradually, others, such as Agatha and Dudley, and Roberto Cavallin, are drawn into confidence. But can Anna trust them? When a cart accident lands Anna in a canal, nearly costing her life, she knows she must be getting close to the truth. But who to truly trust?

This story drew me in straightaway, and I was loathe to stop, to leave the wind- and water-swept lure of an ancient city with a modern puzzle. The language and phrasing are delicious, pure poetry, reflective of the Italian language itself. Volker has interspersed liberal Italian into the story, while we are on said language. It prompted my rusting beginners Italian to kick in, breathing music and proper pronunciation, even if I couldn't always suss out the meaning. Volker tended that aspect as well, translating into English, or giving enough English context to make an educated guess at meaning. This city on paper and its people felt so real, the culture authentic.

While Corrin's murder, and Anna's plight are threads woven all throughout, there are dozens of smaller stories, old and new, that draw you to the other characters as well. What are the true circumstances of the death of Alessandro's family? Why did Pablo, another guest of Alessandro, and an acquaintance of Sergio, really lose his medical license? What is Roberto Cavallin hiding? Like delicate drops of ink on watercolour, bits of history are added in, daubed with a sense of romantic mystery. Why did Torcello become mostly abandoned? Who is the singer Anna heard, when the clerk at her pensione insists there was no such thing?

But most of all, can Anna let go of the past and open herself up to trust again?

📚📚📚📚📚 Highly recommended ( )