Sent to the Devil

Starred review from February 22, 2016
Set in Venice in 1788, Lebow’s outstanding sequel to 2015’s The Figaro Murders finds poet Lorenzo Da Ponte hard at work adapting his own libretto for Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. The production will be a command performance for Emperor Joseph II, whose recent declaration of war against the Ottoman Empire has left the Austrian capital politically divided. The brutal slaying of a scholarly friend of Lorenzo’s, Fr. Alois Bayer, whose killer carved lines into his forehead, ratchets up the tension. Some residents fear that Turks, who have infiltrated the city, are responsible. Count Pergen, the minister of police, recruits Lorenzo to investigate, given the poet’s previous successes as a sleuth. Pergen reveals that a prominent general, whose death was publicly attributed to a seizure, was murdered in a fashion similar to the priest’s. The minister believes that the dead men, who represented the military and the church, were targeted as “symbols of Austrian greatness.” The puzzle, characters, and period detail are all top-notch. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency.

February 15, 2016
Life imitates art imitating life in a celebrated librettist's second detective assignment. Don Giovanni has been a hit in Prague, but Lorenzo Da Ponte, poet of Vienna's Court Theater, and composer Wolfgang Mozart want to revise the opera for the more sophisticated audience of the imperial capital. Even though Emperor Joseph II is off fighting a war against the Turks, he's ordered a performance of the opera, and Da Ponte feels he has no time to waste. But the murder of retired priest Alois Bayer, a friend of Da Ponte's, warrants the librettist's attention not only because it's a personal loss, but also because it's eerily similar to the recent murder of an elderly general. The general's daughter, Christiane, demands that her fiance, Count Benda, avenge her father's death, and the Ministry of Police orders Da Ponte to help Benda find the killer. A more agreeable distraction is Marta Cavalli, who's come to Vienna to find the man she believes is her husband, the handsome womanizer Baron von Gerl. When the baron rejects her, she begs comfort from Da Ponte, who can't help falling in love with her even though the minor orders of priesthood he took as a young man prevent him from marrying her. Da Ponte's friend Casanova, on a visit from Da Ponte's native Venice, urges him to follow his heart. No such luck. Two more murders that suggest the killer is alluding to the seven deadly sins before punishing each of his victims with death and mutilation awaken Da Ponte to the folly of his romantic dreams. When the librettist gets notice that he's next on the list, he becomes reluctant bait in a trap he has little hope of surviving. This sequel to The Figaro Murders (2015) continues to supply counterparts for Da Ponte's operatic characters. Although the device seems a little more contrived a second time out, it adds extra zest to this 18th-century whodunit.

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February 15, 2016
We return to Vienna in 1788, two years after Lebow's series debut (The Figaro Murders, 2015), to find Lorenzo Da Ponte revising the libretto of Mozart's new opera, Don Giovanni. Emperor Joseph II has been waging war on the Turks, and the citizens of the city are uneasy. Da Ponte's good friend Alois, an elderly priest, is murdered, and strange symbols are carved into his forehead. A retired general's mutilated body is also found. The murders are thought to be an expression of opposition to the war. Subsequent deaths lead Da Ponte to realize there are more malevolent forces at work, and he puts his own life at risk as he makes his way through many plausible suspects, finding clues in snippets of Dante and contending with the local Don Giovanni. Solid writing from Lebow, rich in period detail and opera lore. Fans of historical and musical mysteries will look forward to enjoying more time lost in the baroque with Da Ponte. And who knew there were eighteenth-century Dante discussion circles?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)