Episode 1

A Venetian Reckoning is the third installment in our Donna Leon series, a dark criminal investigation that reveals some ugly truths about those who control power and money in Venice.

When a lorry crashes on one of the treacherous hairpin bends in the Italian Dolomites, fatally killing all those on board, even the crime-hardened Commissario Brunetti is appalled when he learns of its terrible cargo - a group of girls trafficked from Eastern Europe.

This is Donna Leon's fourth novel to feature Guido Brunetti but she doesn't allow her love for Venice to constrain her view of a city that can at times harbour the vilest of criminals engaged in the most appalling crimes - in this case sex trafficking, and worse, with devastating consequences.

Even the usually buoyant Brunetti finds it hard to find any forgiveness for those responsible in an investigation which sorely tests his already slender faith in humanity.

COMMISSARIO GUIDO BRUNETTI - Julian Rhind-Tutt
PROFESSORESSA PAOLA FALIER - Jeany Spark
SERGEANT LORENZO VIANELLO - Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
VICE-QUESTORE GIUSEPPE PATTA - David Horovitch
CONTESSA DONATELLA FALIER - Siobhan Redmond)
SIGNORINA ELETTRA - Emily Bruni
ORNELLA TREVISAN - Jane Slavin
REGINA CERONI - Greta Scacchi
CHIARA BRUNETTI - Lauryn Sherwood
GIORGIO
JUDGE BENIAMIN, UMBALDO LOTTO - Clive Hayward
FRANCESCA TREVISAN - Sarah Agha

Dramatised by D.J. Britton
Music by Julie Cooper

Produced and directed by Eoin O'Callaghan
A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4