Masks and Shadows
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The year is 1779, and Carlo Morelli, the most renowned castrato singer in Europe, has been invited as an honored guest to Eszterháza Palace. With Carlo in Prince Nikolaus Esterházy's carriage, ride a Prussian spy and one of the most notorious alchemists in the Habsburg Empire. Already at Eszterháza is Charlotte von Steinbeck, the very proper sister of Prince Nikolaus's mistress. Charlotte has retreated to the countryside to mourn her husband's death. Now, she must overcome the ingrained rules of her society in order to uncover the dangerous secrets lurking within the palace's golden walls. Music, magic, and blackmail mingle in a plot to assassinate the Habsburg Emperor and Empress--a plot that can only be stopped if Carlo and Charlotte can see through the masks worn by everyone they meet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Burgis (the Kat, Incorrigible series), trained as a music historian, does justice to an unusual choice of time period and subject matter in this enjoyable historical fantasy. Charlotte von Steinbeck, recently widowed, accepts her sister Sophie's invitation to visit Eszterh za, the grandiose palace of the Hungarian prince Nikolaus Esterh zy. The year is 1779, and the prince, Sophie's lover, is a wealthy patron of the arts and sciences. One of the arts he supports is music: his chief household musician is Haydn, and the famous castrato singer Carlo Morelli arrives to visit shortly after Charlotte does. The prince's court, however, is also full of alchemists studying dangerous, secret magic. Charlotte and Carlo learn that they and those they care for are in deadly peril as they attempt to attend Haydn's new opera and succeed at falling in love. The political intricacies and the details of court life and court music are intensely evocative, and the characters are charming though not, unfortunately, as three-dimensional as their spectacular surroundings.
