Cruel Music (Tito Amato Series) - Softcover

Myers, Beverle Graves

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590584252 ISBN 13: 9781590584255

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2008

Synopsis

Tito Amato returns from an operatic tour expecting to relax with his family. Instead he finds his merchant brother Alessandro imprisoned on a trumped-up smuggling charge, a capital crime in 1740 Venice. The senator who controls Alessandro's fate is determined to have a Venetian as the next pope. He forces Tito to Rome to sing at the villa of a powerful, music-loving cardinal who will control the coming papal election. Spying as he serenades Cardinal Fabiani and his guests, Tito peers into the dark mirror of Roman politics. Pope Clement XII is sinking fast, and two candidates emerge as leading contenders for St. Peter's throne. Will Fabiani support the highborn Venetian whose secret passion is tinkering with electrical experiments? Or the humble cardinal with the gift of healing and a mysterious past?The discovery of a beautiful corpse in Fabiani's garden complicates Tito's mission. Fabiani believes that a member of his household killed the young maid in a fit of madness, but Tito

About this title

About the Author:

Beverle Graves Myers is the author of the Baroque Mystery series featuring Tito Amato. Her novels and short stories have earned nominations for the Macavity, Derringer, and Kentucky Literary Awards. A retired psychiatrist, Bev is also a lifelong opera lover and avid traveler. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband, Lawrence.

From Publishers Weekly:

Myers's third mystery to feature soprano Tito Amato, a renowned castrato in 18th-century Italy, gets off to a slow start, but the pace soon picks up. Tito finds himself in Rome, singing in the house of Cardinal Lorenzo Fabiani. Chez Fabiani is abuzz with papal politics—Pope Clement XII's on his deathbed, and the two men most likely to replace him need Fabiani's support if they are to prevail. When Fabiani's mother's maid turns up strangled in Fabiani's garden, Fabiani covers up the crime, but Tito, worried he'll be falsely implicated should the corpse come to light, decides to get to the bottom of things. His investigation leads him into fascinating Roman subcultures—communities of goddess worshipers, who practice ancient paganism right under the church's nose, and church leaders who are more interested in natural science than theology. Myers (Interrupted Aria) litters the book with coy references to the castrato's surprising sex life, but leaves the details to the reader's imagination. (Sept.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1590584252
• ISBN 13: 9781590584255
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 303