As recent well-publicized incidents attest, air travel can trigger violence. Even if the flight is smooth, the boarding process is often fraught with anxiety. Reading, specifically a good murder mystery, is the perfect antidote for unexpected problems. Angry impulses can be channeled into learning how the killer gets caught, and the long hours can be fruitfully spent with a good book.
Donna Leon introduced Commissario Gino Brunetti in 1992's Death at La Fenice, and readers around the globe have been grateful ever since. Her 26th Venice-set mystery Earthly Remains (Atlantic Monthly Press, $25) finds the usually rational Brunetti acting impulsively while investigating a wealthy, self-important man suspected of giving drugs to a young girl who died from them. Appalled by his behavior, Brunetti realizes he needs a break from work, from the corruption and enabling bureaucracy that's as much a part of La Serenissima as the tourists, lagoons, and gondolas. His understanding, socialist, Henry James-loving wife Paola, daughter of a count, arranges for them to stay at the posh villa of a relative on the island of Saint Erasmo. When the villa's caretaker disappears during a violent storm, Brunetti's hopes of relaxing and reading his favorite Roman authors are also blown away. Leon masterfully weaves several plot threads and takes the reader through the labyrinth of Venetian life that has nothing do with sipping a cappuccino on the Piazza San Marco.
Parts of modern-day Athens are as far removed from the city's classical heritage as Patagonia is, while other sections cannot escape the shadow of the Parthenon. Pol Koutsakis' Athenian Blues (Bitter Lemon Press, $14.95) accepts Aristotle's assertion that democracy, monarchy, and dictatorship can all be effective forms of government �" one isn't inherently better than the others. His protagonist, Stratos Gazis, is a professional killer for hire, but he only accepts commissions when he feels certain the intended victim deserves his/her fate. His latest potential assignment will test his judgment: a husband and wife each approach him to do away with the other. With the help of his three childhood friends �" Drag, a cop; Teri, a stylish transgender hooker; and Maria, the love of his life, and of Drag's �" Gazis metes out justice in his own way. Athens, its glorious past and often turbulent present, is very much a character in this story.
Victorian London is Anne Perry's world. She introduced Inspector Thomas Pitt in 1979's The Cater Street Hangman, in which, while solving a murder, he fell in love with the well-born sister of the victim. She defied convention by marrying beneath her class. Charlotte's social connections opened doors for Pitt that would otherwise have been closed. Together, they have made a superlative sleuthing team. Their latest, Murder on the Serpentine (Ballantine Books, $28), finds now-Commander of the Special Branch Pitt receiving a royal summons after the body of Sir John Halberd, an intimate of the queen, is found in the shallow water of Hyde Park's Serpentine. He had been investigating someone who seemed to have undue influence on the Prince of Wales. All evidence points to the murderer being an aristocrat, which means that Charlotte must help Thomas negotiate that rarified world while making sure nothing embarrassing to the royal family becomes public. Late-19th century London, with its sharp contrasts of wealth and horrendous poverty, is superbly depicted.
In 1938, a beautiful actress was murdered on the swank estate of a close friend of the Prince of Wales. An ex-convict was arrested and confessed to the killing. Case closed. Or so it seemed. Eleven years later, however, a rare, valuable jade necklace is unexpectedly found and raises doubts about who the actual killer was. Former Scotland Yard Detective John Madden is reluctantly persuaded to investigate in Rennie Airth's fascinating The Death of Kings (Viking, $27). Madden is shrewd, sympathetic, and determined. Airth knows the period and manners and mores of the privileged classes well.
Mark Pryor's The Paris Librarian (Seventh Street Books, $15.95) is set in today's magnificent French capital. Protagonist Hugo Marston's friend Paul Rogers is found dead, ostensibly of natural causes, in a locked room at the American Library. Marston's suspicions are nonetheless aroused. His investigation leads to recently donated letters of a 1940s American movie actress, Isabelle Severin, who may have aided the Resistance and may have killed an SS Officer. Does this information have anything to do with Rogers' death, and if so, why? Soon, Marsden learns that solving this decades-old crime isn't likely to result in a happy Hollywood ending. Marsden is an engaging and appealing character, and the Paris settings will tempt many readers to return there or visit it for the first time.
Jean-Luc Bannalec's Death in Brittany (Minotaur Books, $15.99) is about murder away from the French capital. Cranky, coffee-addicted Parisian Commissaire George Dupin is coerced into traveling west to the Breton coast to investigate a killing that took place in an idyllic village, a place where everyone knows everyone and trusts them. Of course, everyone also knows everyone's business. Sometimes, that can be fatal. Bannalec understands this world, and Dupin's intelligence, integrity, and keen sense of justice neatly balance his cantankerous demeanor.
Nancy Tingley's A Head in Cambodia (Swallow Press/Univ. of Ohio Press, $26.95) features Jenna Murphy, a museum curator. A magnificent stone head of an ancient Cambodian queen unexpectedly pops up at Jane's museum. Has it been decapitated from an authentic statue, or is it a fake? When a second head is discovered, Jenna finds herself investigating more than the authenticity of priceless artifacts. She travels to Bangkok and Cambodia and meets collectors, many of whom think nothing of committing murder if it means adding a valuable treasure to their holdings. Jane applies her curatorial skills to living beings who are often nothing like the beautiful works of art they covet. Engaging and atmospheric.