November 1, 2020
The Nick and Nora of music research probe the mystery of the vanished Chopin Library and its deadly legacy. Elderly professor Ernest Liripine and Dr. Theo Purslove are excited to receive an old scrapbook sent by Dr. Liripine's former student Nina Randall, who's currently working in Warsaw. The book provides links to the storied Chopin Library, which was presumably destroyed by the Nazis, and to a subgenre of music euphemistically called "Dark Cadence"--that is, execution music. Is this just one of the eerie myths surrounding the Library? They decide to consult music researcher Phineas Fox and Arabella Tallis, his ladylove and sidekick. Flashbacks take the story intermittently back to 1918 as two young women named Katya and Zena hide in a large, elaborate home. Rayne attenuates the suspense with a slow reveal of their location and their plight. They're in imperial Russia, connected to Czar Nicholas and his family. As Phin and Arabella decipher more documents, Lucek Socha, who heads the archive office in Warsaw, contemplates a romance with Nina and recalls his unsettling upbringing by his artistic aunt Helena. These eerie reminiscences are developed along with the other narrative threads to produce a mosaic of the rise and fall of the Library during World War II. Despite the strenuous attempts to bring all the parts together, the novel reads more like an anthology. Still, Rayne writes with panache and imagination, especially about relationships. Phin and Arabella have luscious chemistry, and the elderly academics bicker with courtly drollery. A chocolate box of classical music, banter, historic tidbits, and spooky stories.
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December 21, 2020
At the start of Rayne’s haunting fifth Phineas Fox mystery (after 2019’s Music Macabre), two scholars ask London musicologist Phineas Fox and his lover, Arabella Tallis, to authenticate a scrapbook recovered from a building site in Warsaw, Poland, where the Chopin Library once stood decades ago before the Germans destroyed it during WWII. The scrapbook contains a draft of what looks like a concert program cover with the name of a quartet, a date, and a piece of music the scholars agree would never have been performed at a concert, let alone written down. Phineas and Arabella set out to identify the mysterious and ominous piece of music, which is only performed at a traitor’s execution and has a connection to what happened in 1944 Poland, as well as events in 1918 Russia. Rayne smoothly intertwines the present-day action with flashbacks as this intricate tale of music, love, betrayal, and self-sacrifice builds to a satisfactory if somewhat unsurprising conclusion. The snarky banter of the academics provides a nice comic touch. Fans of intelligent historical mysteries will be rewarded. Agent: Jane Conway-Gordon, Jane Conway-Gordon Ltd. (U.K.).
Starred review from February 15, 2021
Music researcher and amateur sleuth Phineas Fox returns for a fifth adventure (following Music Macabre, 2019). An old scrapbook has been found in the former Chopin Library in Warsaw. Among its contents are clues to the existence of a piece of music that's generally considered to be the stuff of legend: the "Dark Cadence," which was (allegedly) played only at the executions of traitors. As he tries to find out more, Fox uncovers dark secrets about the destruction of the library during the WWII Nazi occupation, as well as as unsettling links to the execution of a Russian czar. The Fox novels are a joy to read. They're beautifully written, with a strong protagonist and very cleverly constructed stories. Rayne, who also writes the Nell West and Michael Flint haunted-house mysteries, really seems to enjoy telling a twisty story, and this time the plot hits a new high for neck-wrenching pivots. Each of the Fox novels has been better than the last--with more-complex stories that ratchet up the suspense to a new level, a trend that continues here. Fans of Phineas Fox will be lining up for this one.
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