by Susanne Dunlap
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a very difficult review to do !!
--- (warning: English is not my native language, you might find form and grammar errors)---
I gave a 3 star rating, but it could have been 4 stars, but until halfway through the book ( and also a little bit after halfway ) I was convinced that I would have given 2 stars and no more!
I really struggled to go on reading this novel !!!!!!!!!!!!
Where do I begin to explain all these mixed feelings to you?
1) The plot is solid, really captivating, perhaps one of the most original plots that have happened to me in recent years and that captivated me as soon as I read the back cover.
___THE PLOT__ The story takes place in 18th century imperial Vienna.
The protagonist is a young musician, whose life is suddenly turned upside down by the murder of her father, also a musician at the orchestra at Prince Nicholas Esterhazy’s court, his valuable violin missing, and the only clue to his death a strange gold pendant around his neck.
The body, found in a Hungarian gypsy camp, is brought back home by musician friends of the father, all part of the orchestra of Haydn, the famous Austrian composer ... everything is very weird and Theresa wants to find out the truth and she begins to uncover a trail of secrets,blackmail and extortion...
---> how you can see, all looks like an engrossing tale set against a charming period background and enriched with music and light romance.
------ WHAT WENT WRONG THEN ?
I liked the story, but unfortunately the author told it flatly and without emphasis, at least for the first half of the book, or maybe for almost three quarters of the book!
For the first 8/10 chapters, there were practically no dialogues, only a dozen very short sentences.
Example :
1st sentence : Open up!
2nd one: what happens?
3rd one: I don't know !
...hey ...8 (or maybe 10) chapters where the characters uttered only short sentences like that, scattered among what seemed like a daily newspaper report, really makes one want to throw the book out the window.
Luckily I was reading an ebook that I got for free from a friend!
I considered abandoning the book, but the plot promised well and I hoped it would improve, so I forced myself to keep going on with the reading.
But as I said IT WAS SO BORING ! Eventually halfway through the book twists and turns began, some clues appeared and dialogues were finally more interesting (even if, unfortunately, never passionate and full of pathos as it should be in a compelling novel).
By now I had entered the story and so managed to get to the end to see the mystery solved, the villain punished and good people save.
The writing is very simple, indeed I never needed to consult the English-Italian vocabulary ( the book was not available in my native language... I know my English is not so good, then please, forgive any error you find in my review ).
This reading is recommended for 12 years old and up, but since it talks about pedophilia and it describes gruesome death sentences... I'd say it's better from 15 years old and up.
I don't understand why some readers expected something more in-depth about the composer Haydn: it's an adventure-mystery-fiction novel (and not a biography of a famous musician) with just a hint of romanticism (I wasn't looking for that, so it turned out fine, but if you want to read about love, then you have to read a different book ).
Summary : if the setting fascinates you and if you are patient enough to face a flat "newspaper" style reading (at least for half of the book), and you are not interested in love stories, THEN READ IT!
... otherwise forget it.
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