Book description
In September of 1740, singer Tito Amato receives a curious invitation.
The German composer Karl Johann Weber is rehearsing a new opera at an
isolated villa nestled in the hills of the Venetian mainland. Would Tito
accept the lead role? Puzzled by the air of secrecy that enshrouds the
production, but attracted by a generous fee, Tito agrees. Artist Gussie
Rumbolt, Titos friend and brother-in-law, has also been summoned to
paint scenes of the estates grape harvest. The two men find the
countryside awash with the golden hues of autumn, but the bucolic mood
quickly turns menacing when a notorious figure from Titos past turns up
at the villa. That night, at the stroke of twelve, a soprano stumbles
over a stranger who has been beaten to death with the clock pendulum.
With the local constable away on a boar hunt, the midnight murderer
strikes with impunity, raising terror to a fevered crescendo. Ever
faithful to the ideals of truth and justice, Tito pursues his own quest
for answersa quest that leads straight into the painful secrets of his
heart and beyond. The Iron Tongue of Midnight is the fourth novel in
Myers Baroque Mystery series. It follows Cruel Music. Murder stalks
the guests at a villa outside Venice. Noted castrato Tito Amato (Painted
Veil, 2005, etc.) is invited to become a cast member of a new (1740)
opera written by a paranoid German composer and financed by Octavia
Dolfini, star-struck wife of a wealthy ironmonger who recently won a
country estate gambling. Lured by a healthy salary and the fact that his
brother-in-law Gussie, an English artist, has also been offered a large
fee by Vincenzo Dolfini to immortalize his new home, he's surprised to
discover that French soprano Gabrielle Fouquet insisted on him for the
leading role. It's only after an anonymous stranger, identified only by
a Russian pistol, is found dead in the house that he meets Madame
Fouquet and her cruel and controlling husband and is shocked to see she
is actually his sister Grisella Amato, who had departed Venice with a
wealthy Russian, leaving scandal in her wake. Tito's brother Alessandro,
who'd been scouring Constantinople for Grisella, recently wrote to Tito
that she'd died in a fire. When one of the opera singers is found dead
in a vat of crushed grapes, Tito is anxious to discover whether a mad
killer is among them -- or whether his sister's checkered past is
catching up to her. An accomplished historical novel that's also a
classic country-house murder mystery. Beverle Graves Myers fell in
love with opera at age nine during a marionette production of Rigoletto.
A Kentucky native, she studied history at the University of Louisville
and went on to earn a degree in medicine. After a career in psychiatry,
she devoted herself to writing full-time. Beverle is the author of the
Baroque mystery series featuring Tito Amato.
