- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 2881 KB
- Print Length: 284 pages
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
- Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (Dec 31 2012)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00HLSY9S8
Book Description
Venice, 1745—an age of reckless pleasures, playful artifice, and baroque excess. An accident has reduced Tito Amato’s glorious singing voice to a husky croak. A tragedy— but also an opportunity. The once celebrated male soprano is now determined to prove himself as a director. With the theater losing subscribers to a rival company headed by an unscrupulous impresario, San Marco’s Maestro Torani charges Tito with locating the perfect opera to fill the seats in time for the opening of Carnival.
Surprisingly, a second-rate composer provides the very thing—an opera so replete with gorgeous melodies the public speculates it was written by the late Antonio Vivaldi. Even more disconcerting are the rumors swirling around Angeletto, a male soprano imported from Naples to sing the lead. Is the singer truly a castrato or a female soprano engaging in a daring but lucrative masquerade?
Both matters lead the perplexed Tito into dangerous waters that turn murderous when Maestro Torani undergoes a series of increasingly vicious attacks ending in his death. And Tito is the prime suspect. His own life as well as the future of Teatro San Marco now depend on his skills as a sleuth….
About the Author
Beverle Graves Myers is the author of five previous Tito Amato mysteries, and, with Joanne Dobson, Face of the Enemy set in New York during World War II. Bev, a retired psychiatrist, divides her time between Kentucky and Florida.
My Review
Poisoned Pen Press has a wonderful stable of authors, Beverle Graves Myers included. I love going back in time to 1745 in Venice. The thought of being transported to Venice is enough to make you want to read this book.
In 1745, Venice is mysterious and alluring. The author did a wonderful job of transporting the reader to 18th century Venice. And the mystery was well plotted and intriguing. A rivalry has developed between two opera houses. Tito Amato's voice has been compromised thus he takes on directing an opera instead. There are questions about who wrote the opera the competing opera house is producing. Then there are questions about the sex of Angeletto, the soprano Tito hires for his opera. Amidst all these questions there is a murder. Can Tito solve the mystery...
I'm not a fan of opera and had barely heard of Vivaldi before reading this mystery but it was not a concern. The story is such that you do not need a prior knowledge of opera...just the love of a good mystery. And all the better that it is set in 18th century Venice.
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