His entry begins:The Confession – Olen SteinhauerAbout Mozart's Last Aria, from the publisher:
I’ve read a few of Steinhauer’s excellent thrillers over the years, but after getting into The Nearest Exit, his best and most recent, I decided to fill in the gaps with this one. Given that I’ve written about Bethlehem and Gaza and Nablus during times of conflict in my Palestinian crime series, as an antidote to the usual journalistic perspective on them, I enjoy Steinhauer’s approach to Eastern Europe during the turbulent mid-1950s: it’s a period I’ve often read about in history books, but history like journalism tends to focus on politics instead of human interactions. For me, the big political picture was never really enough; I was more interested in the fact that Hungary, 1956, led my grandfather to quit the Communist Party. Steinhauer...[read on]
The news arrives in a letter to his sister, Nannerl, in December 1791. But the message carries more than word of Nannerl’s brother’s demise. Two months earlier, Mozart confided to hisLearn more about the book and author at Matt Beynon Rees' website and blog.wife that his life was rapidly drawing to a close ... and that he knew he had been poisoned.
In Vienna to pay her final respects, Nannerl soon finds herself ensnared in a web of suspicion and intrigue—as the actions of jealous lovers, sinister creditors, rival composers, and Mozart’s Masonic brothers suggest that dark secrets hastened the genius to his grave. As Nannerl digs deeper into the mystery surrounding her brother’s passing, Mozart’s black fate threatens to overtake her as well.
Transporting readers to the salons and concert halls of eighteenth-century Austria, Mozart’s Last Aria is a magnificent historical mystery that pulls back the curtain on a world of soaring music, burning passion, and powerful secrets.
My Book, The Movie: Mozart's Last Aria.
The Page 69 Test: Mozart's Last Aria.
Writers Read: Matt Rees.
--Marshal Zeringue
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