Beverle Graves Myers Cruel Music

Cruel Music

Beverle Graves Myers

Poisoned Pen, Sep 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 1590582306

Early in 1740 following an exhausting tour of the continent, famous castrato Tito Amato returns to Venice to relax with his family. However his respite is short as Chief of Constabulary Messer Grande arrests Tito. Soon afterward Senator Antonio Montorio explains that with Pope Clement XII near death, the Cardinals will select a replacement between his brother Cardinal Stefano and Cardinal Di Noce. Whomever Cardinal Lorenzo Fabiani supports will become the next pope. Tito is to sing for the music loving Fabiani and learn who he backs or his family will suffer.

Tito heads to Rome where he provides performances while staying at the home of Cardinal Fabiani. The singer quickly learns that the only topic amidst the residents and servants of the house is the next pope. However, someone strangles to death a beautiful maid. While Fabiani assumes a family member is the killer and decides to cover up the homicide, houseguest Tito and his two person entourage fear that they will be left singing confessions to the murder. They investigate which leads them to some underground Roman groups.

The third Baroque mystery contains an interesting whodunit, but that takes a back seat to the insightful look at Papal politics in the middle of the eighteenth century. What is fascinating is the senator's explanation that a Venetian needs to sit on the throne so that patronage can be earmarked for his city. Also appealing are the underground cultures that thrive within walking distance of the Vatican as sects of ancient pagan worshipping is prevalent and biologists, physicists and chemists abound. Though the plot takes its time to set the stage, it is worth the wait as the audience will gain a grasp on the political patronage swapping and once in Rome Tito does not do what the Romans do as he investigates.

Harriet Klausner