It's November, and the tourists have once again left the beautiful city of canals to the people who live there - and to people like Urbino Macintyre, the American expatriate biographer who seems to spend most of his time in the company of his friend and patron, Barbara, the Contessa da Capo-Zendrini, British widow of an Italian count.The Contessa is worried, and with good reason. She has allowed her portrait to be painted by her cousin, the celebrated artist Gemma Bellini-Rhys. The portrait's unveiling could be a good opportunity for Barbara to reconcile with her husband's family, the Zenos. The two families had last been together at a tragic party at Barbara's house, the Ca' da Capo-Zendrini, in the 1930's. Now some members of the original house party and their descendants are coming together again.Using the cherished "closed room" tradition, where only a small number of suspects has access to the murder scene, one of the masters of the form has written in Death in the Palazzo a witty, literate, and always subtle mystery. Read Less