Song of the Damned

Rayne’s entertaining third outing for London-based musicologist Phineas Fox (after 2017’s Chord of Evil) takes Phin and his friend Arabella Tallis to Cresacre School, formerly Cresacre Convent. Arabella is helping to plan a celebration of the school’s bicentenary. There’s only one snag: wealthy Olivia Tulliver is insisting that an opera—based loosely on the mysterious disappearance of some of the convent’s nuns at the end of the 18th century—by her late uncle Gustav, who was once the school’s head teacher, be performed during the festivities. If not, Olivia threatens to reduce funding for the Tulliver Scholarship. Adding breadth to the intrigue are excerpts from the vivid diary of Sister Cecilia, who was one of the nuns who vanished, and episodes in the eventful life of young Gina Chandos, who’s targeted by a seducer in 1794. Each narrative thread raises questions about the nuns’ fate that keep the reader guessing. Fans of erudite mysteries with a musical slant are in for a treat. [em]Agent: Jane Conway-Gordon, Jane Conway-Gordon Ltd. (U.K.). (Nov.) [/em]