Mozart lovers are in for a treat, though others may be put off by the excruciatingly complicated plot of this debut mystery from musicologist Slater, author of In Mozart's Footsteps
(1991), a scholarly study of the European travels of Mozart and his father, Leopold. En route to La Favorite, the lavish estate of Mozart aficionado Vicomte René de Laguerelle, Boston music scholar Matthew Pierce, out of a job and out of funds (as Mozart so often was), gets stranded in Milan by a strike. At an auction house he purchases a folio that includes what appears to be a diary kept by the young Mozart. If the diary is authentic, Matthew's future is golden, but his search for the truth leads him into a world of intrigue where devilish plots and gruesome death conspire to rob him of his sanity and his life. The start of each of six sections, which parallel Mozart's travels, offers the same gimmick: our hero agonizing to recover the memory of past events after a near-fatal attack. Slater's attention to historical detail is exquisite; his descriptive passages are poetic, even musical; yet excessive length and a surfeit of minor characters, however interesting, cry out for the editor's scalpel. That said, patient readers will find plenty to please: steamy sex, sleazy crooks, international money laundering schemes, rapturous musical events and, best of all, a plausible re-creation of the diaries of the young genius. (Oct. 1)
Forecast:Word of mouth in the classical music community—the author's also a concert pianist—should make up for any weakness of sales within the mystery field. Those confused by the authorship of
In Mozart's Footsteps (Harrison James Wignall) should know Slater has since legally changed his name.
