Many readers of detective fiction set in attractive travel destinations have found a pleasant retreat in the Venetian novels of American writer Donna Leon. I am one of them.

Her detective-protagonist Commissario Guido Brunetti moves knowledgeably through the city’s streets and canals in search of conspicuous misdoings and evidence of government corruption while always finding quality personal time to spend with his family in their well-appointed apartment and to enjoy specially prepared meals. His wife is both a fine cook and an academic with literary interests while their two children have developed into interesting Venetian teenagers.

Add to that Brunetti’s amusing colleagues at police headquarters along with the concerns of his wife’s highly social parents, and Leon has given herself plenty to work with. In fact, she has been producing a new novel each year until now; more than 30 Brunetti novels are currently in circulation. 

“Backstage” is a background sort of book in which Donna Leon provides her readers with welcome information about her personal history, her literary influences, and her musical enthusiasms. It’s a bit of a holiday venture on her part, but, as her title implies, while Venice is her chosen literary stage, her private life remains under her strict personal control just as a theatre performer protects her backstage personal life.

She divides “Backstage” into 10 sections; each chapter is short, much like the chapters in a Brunetti novel. It all began in 1942 in urban New Jersey.

Leon’s early professional life seems to have been a mix of graduate studies and ad hoc teaching jobs, the latter often supporting the former. Her first sketch, “Cedric,” recounts her experiences as a substitute third-grade teacher in Newark, New Jersey. Most........

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