Music
Mozart
Mystery
Author named "Slater"
It 'sang' out to me.
Good storyline and enjoyable.
Read in 2007. ( )

Yet another novel by an academic and one who is steadily still going through adolescence. This time the Dan Brownish mystery du jour revolves around a diary supposedly written by Mozart found in what appeared to be a worthless binder at an otherwise fancy auction in Italy. A good looking academic with a vast knowledge of anything Mozart but who is otherwise unrecognized and under appreciated, finds what appear to be genuine pages written by Mozart documenting his travels through Europe. Our protagonists wants to sell the documents because he's poor, he wants to get them authenticated because he's misunderstood and he wants ... a lot of things he can't figure out. Sex is one of those and we are overloaded with misplaced sex on every page. After one quarter into the book I was sick and tired of reading yet another 'supple' or 'purring'.

We find a lot of irony in this novel. Even though all the historical data is tight and very convincing, the description of people and events are so incredibly ridiculous that you can't even laugh about them. For example, after a horrific murder takes place at the estate in France (Nancy) where Pierce is staying, the host decides to move the entire batch of guests to Venice. By limousine. If you map that out in Google maps then you see that this takes at least about 8 or 9 hours. Who in their right and sane minds would write a narrative in which a very very rich French aristocrat would move around 20 high profile guests from France to Italy by limousine?

You have to wonder what Harrison Gradwell Slater was thinking when he wrote it, perhaps he was reading various articles in Playboy in between his Mozart research? Every character is either female and more astonishing than anything airbrushed we can currently find on glamour magazines, or male and ugly or male and reprehensible (or both). It could be said that the characters are flat, but that would be giving them a lot more credit for their predictable behavior than they deserve. ( )

Features the inveterate musicologist, Matthew Pierce. (the author)

The author, whose real name is Harrison James Wignall, has a Ph. D. in Musicology from Brandeis (on Mozart), and book is a murder mystery about a musicologist who discovers a lost Mozart diary, which leads him into a dark world of nefarious dealings and intrigue throughout Europe. (Michael Broyles)

It was pretty good! I have to say the main drawback is it's length, almost five hundred pages. Egad!

Here's the story:

Matthew Pierce is a Mozart scholar. I won't say a "prominent" scholar because he's a little down on his luck and hasn't made his big break. While on a trip in Europe, he gets stuck in Milan and happens to see an estate sale. He notices, stuck between some other miscellanous papers, what appears to be parts of Mozart's diary. No one else had noticed so he get's the papers for next to nothing.

And then the whirlwind starts. He gets invited to a swanky event hosted by a Viscount in France on his estate. And this is a fancy fancy get together lasting weeks with some of the world's wealthiest and talented people: opera singers (of course), royalty, etc. And everyone has something to do Mozart. So of course there's gossip, masked balls, and of course....DEATH.

A few people wind up dead, there's scary threatening notes, and attempted murder. Of course there is. So Matthew Pierce needs to know a few things: 1) is his Mozart diary for real? 2) is his life in danger? 3) who is threatening the guests?

It was actually a pretty fun whirlwind mystery. I have to say Harrison Gradwell Slater knows his Mozart. I loved reading the diary pieces and it even inspired me to pop in and listen to some Mozart while reading parts of the book. I absolutely adored the European descriptions. He makes the cities and settings come alive. I loved that.

The only thing is that it drug a bit sometimes. And sometimes Matthew Pierce was so kowtowed (I had to look up how to spell that word...ha!) that I wanted to slap him upside the head. And like I said before, it's a bit too long.

But now it's got me all interested in the life of Mozart. ( )

Pretty interesting novel about a man who get stranded in Milan by a train strike. Whilee there he comes across a document which he begins to think is the diary of Mozart. A lot of other people think it may be also and there is where the story gets interesting. I am sure it would be better if I were a classical devotee, but still was a good read. ( )