City of Falling Angels by John Berendt.
Berendt, the author of the mega best seller Midnight in the Garden of Good
and Evil does for Venice, Italy what he did for Savannah, Georgia. He arrives in
Venice for a short stay just days after La Fenice, Venice’s historic and newly
renovated opera house mysteriously burns to the ground, and decides to stay
and investigate the fire, the city, and it’s eccentric inhabitants. Berendt discovers
that many blame the city for a lack of oversight that led the renovation being an
“accident waiting to happen.” Berendt does a wonderful job reading his own material
making the most mundane interviews sound exotic, fascinating and even a bit
sinister, as he unravels to story behind the fire.