The Iron Tongue of Midnight

January 14, 2008
In Myers's agreeable fourth mystery to feature 18th-century Venetian castrato Tito Amato (after 2006's Cruel Music
), Tito has barely settled in at a country villa, where he's participating in a private performance commissioned by a wealthy opera lover, when a stranger is found murdered in the villa's hallway. To his further astonishment, one of the singers gathered there, under a false identity, is his sister, Grisella, who left the family years before and for whom his brother, Alessandro, is just then searching in Constantinople. Tito attempts to solve the murder and uncover his sister's real story amid musical rehearsals, regular epistles from Alessandro and more deaths. The book's diction and attitudes have a contemporary rather than a historical ring, and Alessandro's unrealistically prompt and well-dramatized letters are an obvious fictional contrivance. Still, Tito proves himself a lively narrator, and fans of cozier period puzzles and Italian opera will enjoy his company as well as the book's appealingly bucolic, autumnal setting.

February 1, 2008
In his fourth "Baroque Mystery" outing (after "Cruel Music"), famous Venetian castrato Tito Amato and his brother-in-law arrive at the country villa where rehearsals for a new opera are already underway. The body of an unidentifed man is soon discovered, and the gathered performers, as their personal lives come under scrutiny, begin to unravel. Myers uses the intriguing 18th-century Italian settings to great advantage in this lively historical country house mystery. Myers lives in Louisville, KY. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 11/1/07.]

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