Queen of the Adriatic

My current reading-for-fun is Island of the Mad, the latest Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes mystery. Russell promised her friend that she'd try to find her missing aunt, and the story has taken us to Venice, where Russell and Holmes were just looking for a good restaurant... when J. and I decided to watch a Certain Magical Index II. Last night we'd completed a story arc, so tonight's episode started a new one, with our hero, Tōma, winning a trip... to Venice. There were more parallels, too, from the mundane (so many restaurants, how to choose?) to the more serious (trying to find a missing woman, when the city appears to be under pressure (or outright attack) from an authoritarian power based in Rome)...