September 5, 2011
In this engaging, well-paced book from crime novelist and journalist Rees (The Collaborator of Bethlehem), Mozart’s estranged sister, Madame Maria Anna Berchtold von Sonnenburg (called Nannerl by her family), travels to Vienna to investigate the mysterious circumstances of her brother’s sudden death. According to Nannerl’s sister-in-law Constanze, Mozart had premonitions of murder before he died. In Vienna, Nannerl finds a web of deception, scandal, and fear revolving around the colorful, dangerous Freemasons, implicating Mozart in shadowy activities and pointing to his death by poison. Meanwhile, Nannerl’s own musical career—once overshadowed by her prodigy brother’s—is revived as she pays tribute to his compositions. Despite her reservations, she finds herself drawn to a powerful baron, himself caught up in all the intrigue. Combining Dan Brown or Elizabeth Kostova–style historical conspiracy theory with cozy detective novel, Rees’s latest offers a genuinely felt reverence for the power of Mozart’s music and its lasting impact in the world.