Donna Leon Season 1 Episodes

Episode 1

Vendetta

90 mins

The prominent Venetian lawyer Carlo Trevisan is shot dead in a train compartment. Commissario Brunetti and his assistant Vianello are amazed that neither Trevisan's wife Franca nor daughter Francesca are mourning the dead. Brunetti finds out that Franca was having a relationship with Martucci, her husband's deputy, who is obstructing the police investigation as much as possible. Vianello is convinced of Martucci's Mafia contacts, but finds no evidence. The inspector surprisingly received a call from his colleague Della Corte from Padua, who pointed out to Brunetti that there was a parallel between the Trevisan case and the mysterious death of a wealthy tax advisor from Padua. Regina Ceroni, a former Trevisan employee, had met regularly with the tax advisor in Padua. She now runs a travel agency, one of whose main customers was the murdered lawyer. The suspicion is confirmed that the travel agency served the illegal smuggling of mainly Eastern European women who are exploited by their pimps. But when Trevisan's deputy Martucci is also shot, Brunetti is again puzzled. Brunetti's daughter Chiara, who is in the same class as Trevisan's daughter Francesca, interferes in the investigation against her mother's wishes. Francesca passes a video tape to the inspector's daughter, after which Brunetti loses his composure for the first time in his professional life.

Episode 2

Venezianische Scharade

88 mins

Near a slaughterhouse, the body of a transvestite is discovered. Commissario Brunetti learns that the deceased was a respected banker. His appearance proves to be a red herring, planted by his murderers to mislead the police into investigating the homosexual community. The real trail leads to a syndicate that, under the guise of a charitable organization, extorts money from tenants of social housing.

Episode 3

Fatal Remedies

90 mins

Commissario Guido Brunetti can't concentrate on the case of a brave pizzeria boss who dares testify against mob extortion, because his socially conscious wife Paolo gets him suspended by confessing the smashing of a travel agency's window and refusing to settle on damages, blaming it for alleged sexual abuse at the popular Thai destination, yet dares scold Guido's 'immorality' and leaves home as a theatrical gesture. Shortly after, the agency manager is sacked by the owner, whom she publicly insults at a restaurant, the night before he's murdered at home. Brunetti is reinstated to investigate and finds alternative motives and suspects in darker, related businesses.

Episode 4

A Noble Radiance

90 mins

A young man from an aristocratic family is kidnapped. Two years later a body is found. Can it be the kidnapped man? Inspector Brunetti and team investigate resulting in many unanswered questions. On the home front, Chiara takes up cooking and Paola's father meets with Bruno to discuss his daughter's happiness.

Episode 5

Venezianisches Finale

88 mins

Star orchestral director Helmut Wellauer is poisoned in his lodge. Commissario Brunetti has to sift lots of suspects, as the brilliant Maestro made countless enemies by ruining colleagues', (ex-)lovers' and their loved ones' lives. A grim medical condition requires rethinking everything. Meanwhile the commissioner's son Rafi goes trough his juvenile 'communist' phase.

Episode 6

Feine Freunde

88 mins

Commissario Brunetti risks losing his home when city zoning officer Signor Rossi notifies the building permit wasn't obtained correctly. Brunetii rightly suspects a foul when Rossi makes a fatal fall while inspecting some property of corrupt real estate tycoons couple Massimo and Angelina Volpato. Brunetti wrestles with conscientious objections to saving his home and his luxurious boss's minor drug-dealing accused son Roberto Patta, whose big supplier is ruthless. A homeless, addicted key witness in the Rossi case is murdered.

Episode 7

Sanft entschlafen

88 mins

Brunetti examines a series of suspicious deaths in the church-run seniors rest home where his mother resides, who refuses to move in with him so long. Suspicion falls on the secretive fundamentalist movement Opera Pia, including chaplain Pio Cavaletti. A nurse offering to testify drowns. Finding his Swiss police chief Dr. Urs Brauchli far from mundane, Patta dumps him on Brunetti, as the foreigner shows interest in his case.

Episode 8

Acqua alta

88 mins

Venetian museum director Francesco Semenzato agreed archaeologist Brett Lynch about Chinese vases exhibited in his Oriental Art museum, but she's beaten up to scare her off, as local colleague and friend Flavia Petrelli confides in commissioner Brunetti. Shortly after, the director's skull is fatally smashed in his office. Brunetti learns that he was suspected of involvement in art fraud and had a dodgy antiques dealership partner. Camera recordings show a man near both crime scenes: Salvatore La Capra, brutish son of sinister businessman Carmello, immigrated from Sicilia. More crime follows, while the city is flooded.

Episode 9

Beweise, dass es böse ist

90 mins

While the Brunettis were on literary trip to England, Vice-Questore Patta personally conducted an investigated, assisted by sycophant Alvise, into the murder of a rich, generally hated, stingy hag and officially closed it after blaming Rumanian illegal cleaning lady Nicolescu, who fell to her death while chased by the police. Brunetti can't and won't ignore indications that Nicolescu, whose son Gabriel swears to make someone pay, couldn't be the murderer. While his son Raffi, encouraged by grandmother, date his sister's visiting Japanese pen friend Aiko and Patta aspires an honorary doctorate, the commissioner examines the heir, the inheritance and its dodgy origin.

Episode 10

Verschwiegene Kanäle

90 mins

In Venice's prestigious military academy San Martino, cadet Enrico LMoro, son of tycoon , is found hanging from a rope in the locker-room. Forensiocs confirm Brunetti's doubts if it's suicide, as haughtily uncooperative commander Toscana and the vice-questore, who hopes for a career as reserve general, claim. Enrico's cadet roommates, all sons of major businessmen, are involved in a dark plot of envy, revenge and vindictive abuse.

Episode 11

Endstation Venedig

90 mins

US Army sergeant Michael Foster, a health inspector from the nearby Vicenza NATO base, is stabbed and dumped in Venice's Canale Grande, no robbery since cocaine was left on him. The US liaison, Captain Peters, hides she was intimate with Foster. The police chief only cares for PR and high society, so when shady Milanese businessman Viscardis's apartment is robbed of paintings, commissario Guido Brunetti is ordered to make that his priority instead. However he finds more past and new crimes, and connects them.

Episode 12

Das Gesetz der Lagune

88 mins

Commissario Guido Brunetti finds nobody willing to talk in an island's 'clam-closed' fishermen community, where illegal crustacean harvesting is common. An unpopular fisherman and his generally like adult son are found drowned, but also heavily drugged. Shopkeeper Follini, an outsider with a scandalous past, is drowned too once willing to spill some beans. The vice-questore's secretary insists, against Guido's advice, to snoop around as she visits family on the island every year and nobody knows she's police-employed, but the affair that makes it a pleasant holiday proves poisoned.

Episode 13

Die dunkle Stunde der Serenissima

89 mins

When commissioner Brunetti's wife's college student Claudia Leonardo asks his help to see if an innocently convicted 'war criminal' can be rehabilitated, he refers her to a barrister. When she's murdered, he investigates. It turns out her grandmother asked her to help clear the case of her husband, convicted for trading in war crime-obtained paintings. The case involves fake documents and political links over generations, as well as family ties going up to the 'pretore', the very old chief of police. Meanwhile the vice-pretore is enchanted by a new, female commissioner, of 'good stock', and allegedly an expert in far eastern methods, albeit little more then feng-shui.

Episode 14

Blutige Steine

87 mins

Desperately searching for a birthday present for his wife, Venetian police commissioner Brunetti stumbles by the canal where an African is shot by a hit-man using a silencer. The victim's compatriot Nando escaped, wounded, to his sister, a nurse. The Homa Affairs ministry claims the case and all evidence for 'terrorism prevention'. Brunetti snoops on, discovering the Angolans were involved in blood diamond and arms trade.

Episode 15

Wie durch ein dunkles Glas

89 mins

Venetian police commissioner Guido Brunetti examined the murder of Giovanni De Cal, a traditional Murano glass blowing entrepreneur, found literally scorched in front of an oven all night after a blow on the head. Possible motives include his modernist daughter's fear to be disinherited, love for her, jealousy and infidelity. Meanwhile the vice questore concentrates on coaxing a key figure for his promotion prospects, helped by the old constable.

Episode 16

Lasset die Kinder zu mir kommen

89 mins

Carabinieri (national paramilitary police) captain Marvilli's non-uniformed men arrested at night near-naked and beat into hospital pediatrician Gustavo Pedrolli, suspect of the murder of Albanian illegal cleaner Rozafa Krasnic from Verona, who demanded the return of her illegally adopted baby Alfredo. Brunetti and Marvilli, a cocky Sicilian, rival for jurisdiction but end up collaborating. The trail leads to baby sales, but also Pedrolli's wife Biancha's tycoon father Franchi.

Episode 17

Das Mädchen seiner Träume

86 mins

Grandma Amelia Brunetti's death depresses the family, especially Rafi, who volunteers to clear her seniors home room and thus discovers her last romantic episode. The commissioner is dragged from the funeral to investigate the washed-up corpse of an asphyxiated teen girl nobody reported missing. Trough an unrelated picture, she's identified as Ariana, daughter of Bogdan Rocich, from a thefts wave-suspected Roma gypsy family. The police also looks into the apparent last theft victim couple Fornari and their neighbors with a key to water the flowers, Antonia and mother De Vita, ultimately ties it all together.

Episode 18

Schöner Schein

89 mins

Venetian transport firm chief Stefano Ranzatois is murdered at home. Commissario Guido Brunetti works out Ranzatois's fruit cargo was a cover for an illegal waste disposal business. It's run by Franco Barbaro, apparently the lover of businessman Maurizio Cataldo, whose cultivated wife Franca flirts with Brunetti for reasons rooting in a much earlier homicide. Brunetti's father-in-law seems implicated. Vice-Questore Patta has reached mandatory retirement age, so he nostalgically decides to take an active part in the investigation one last time. The man he helps arrest turns out to be an undercover mafia fighter, who is later murdered.

Episode 19

Auf Treu und Glauben

89 mins

Commissario Guido Brunetti finally takes his family on holiday in South Tyrol, but is called back to scorching-hot Venice after the high-profile murder of court bailiff Araldo Fontana, whose skull was smashed in a love nest. Brunetti and sergeant Lorenzo Vianello discover the victim's gay affair with attorney Renato Penzo, who is bashed and has his home searched after he brings out a blackmail affair against judge Coltellini.

Episode 20

Reiches Erbe

89 mins

Lonely widow Costanza Altavilla was strangled at home, after reporting hence-fired ex-con orderly Sergio Cuccetti's multiple malpractice in a poorly funded rest home which she frequently visited. When stolen drugs are found in his home, new state prosecutor Salvatore Patta, the vicequestore's cocky son, considers the case closed. Brunetti doubts and refuses to compromise the rest home future. He finds Costanza also cared for Orsoni's private domestic abuse victims asylum. Patta Senior semi-suspends Brunetti for a precipitous arrest without court-order, but he continuous unofficially, especially a breaking in Altavilla's home, probably seeking for something son Claudio already took home. Rafi duly questions his parents allowing naive sister inviting for a week an imp friend who proves a thief.

Episode 21

Tierische Profite

87 mins

A well-reputed retired Verona veterinary professor's fatally stabbed corpse was dumped in a Venice canal. He worked in a slaughterhouse belonging to tycoon Maurizio De Rivera, who funded the grand party for vice-questore Patta's recent prestigious Italian republican order, managed by his son in law Lino Papetti. Brunetti's imp daughter caused a scandal at the party, crying bribery and protesting against animal abuse with Angelo Animale, whose leader Francesco is later beaten in hospital by man who stole their evidence video obtained by illegally intruding the slaughterhouse. .

Episode 22

Das goldene Ei

88 mins

Laundrette delivery boy Davide collapses from a fatal overdose cardiac medicine while delivering Bruneti's wife's laundry. Devout mother Ana Cavanella, whose sister Maria Pia runs the salon, confesses having helped mentally handicapped Davide committing suicide. Yet the Brunettis aren't convinced the case is that simple, given evidence of his taste for life and creative talent. Paolo gets into trouble by perjuring herself to counter an order from above trough Patta, who is presently obsessed with a profiling author's book he was invited to write an introduction for, to close the case. After an autopsy, nearly prevented by untimely cremation, shows the tablets weren't just Ana's, Guido digs into the family's past and links it to the attempts to stifle his investigation, leading to disabled copper magnate Ludovico Lembo and his wife Ginevra. The doctor who prescribed the tablets is murdered.

Episode 23

Tod zwischen den Zeilen

89 mins

The discovery of a corpse begins a puzzling case for Inspector Brunetti: Enrico Franchini, a former priest who devoted his life to collecting precious writings, was brutally murdered in his apartment. Copies of old books that can be found on his computer lead to mysterious processes in the Biblioteca Merula, which is famous for its ancient collections. The investigators learn from the director, Dottoressa Fabbiani, that for some time now, individual pages have been torn out of precious tomes and stolen. These rarities can be good business for thieves, and the murdered man also had contacts in the black market. Piero Sartor, a Merula employee, behaves suspiciously, as does the American historian Joseph Nickerson Brunetti, and soon comes across the traditional Morosini-Albani family, who once provided doges and still have influence. Their offspring Gianni is currently running for the office of mayor of Venice. That makes the investigation in the better circles of the lagoon city particularly delicate. In addition, the inspector's persistence is shaken when his son Raffi, who is secretly involved in the case, is endangered.

Episode 24

Endlich mein

89 mins

Commissario Brunetti is eagerly awaiting the long-awaited comeback of the opera diva Flavia Petrelli. After a mysterious pause, the famous soprano returns to the stage with Puccini's "Tosca". A few days before the premiere, trade unionists use the attention to protest against the commercialization of the cultural industry: they want to paralyze the opera house with a strike. When a boat for transport services goes up in flames and Petrelli's costume assistant Francesca is killed shortly afterwards, the spokesman for the uprising, Andrea Santello, comes under suspicion. The dead woman is his sister, who continued to work as a strike breaker for the Petrelli. Vice-Questore Patta sees Andrea's hiding as a welcome admission of his guilt. While Brunetti's boss hopes that the premiere can now take place undisturbed, the inspector is following another lead: someone is secretly observing Flavia Petrelli and trying to use her comeback for a big, self-indulgent production. Brunetti and Sergente Vianello have to forestall this person who, out of a misunderstood passion, was responsible for a bloody act. The opera diva is in dire danger.

Episode 25

Ewige Jugend

88 mins

Brunetti is an expert in keeping the wishes of Venice's grandees out of his work. Even the inspector cannot avoid the venerable Contessa Lando-Continui. The 80-year-old asks him to clear up a long-ago family tragedy: She would like to know how her niece fell from a bridge in which the then 15-year-old almost drowned. Due to the irreversible brain damage, Manuela, now 30 years old, remains at the mental level of a 6-year-old (small) child - and it will stay that way forever. When the lifesaver at the time was murdered at the same time, the closed case became unexpectedly topical. Now the inspector wants to find out what the honorable family has covered up and why Manuela's father had to start a new life in the Far East. The mighty Contessa also called him in after all these years of silence - but without revealing what it was all about. The inspector also comes across granite from the strict patriarch. Her close confidante Sandro Vittori-Ricciardi plays an opaque role, as does Stefano Dalla Lana, the murdered man's best friend. Brunetti puts his team on the two cases in which he suspects a direct connection. In a daring scenario, he wants to unravel the truth from the felt of interests and intrigues.

Episode 26

Stille Wasser

90 mins

After a "warning shot" from his body, Brunetti has to slow down. While on sick leave on the lagoon island of San Erasmo, he met the beekeeper Davide Casati, with whom he quickly developed an unusual bond while rowing. The inspector is astonished to find that his new acquaintance had previously been in the same boat as his father. When Brunetti finds Casati's body after a storm, he feels obliged to get to the bottom of the matter to the dead man and his daughter Federica. The inspector does not want to rule out a crime because Casati had a bitter dispute with the neighboring vegetable farmer Zanirato, whose pesticides allegedly poisoned his bees. Zanirato's son, who works for the coast guard, and his superior, Capitano Dantone, are not very well received by the investigations by the Dogestadt Commissioner, who is on sick leave. The environmentalist Patrizia Minati, who had Casati's soil samples examined, is also withholding information. Another trail leads into the past and to the covered-up environmental scandal of a large company and its lawyer. When the investigation stalls, the inspector no longer takes his health into account: he has himself declared fit for duty so that he can finally solve the mysterious case with full commitment as usual.

Episode 99

Commissario Brunetti

Commissario Brunetti.