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Title: Mozart's Last Aria

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Matt Rees

Narrator: Rula Lenska

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-08-16

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Transporting listeners to the salons and concert halls of 18th-century Austria, Mozart's Last Aria pulls back the curtain on a world of powerful secrets and powerful men - from the enigmatic Freemasons to the secret police to the Austrian emperor himself - in a detailed story of soaring music, burning passion, and mortal danger.

In December 1791, Madame Maria Anna Berchtold von Sonnenburg - known to her family as Nannerl - receives a letter from her sister-in-law, Costanze, with devastating news: Nannerl's brother, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is dead.

But Constanze's letter carries more than just news of the great composer's death. Months earlier, Mozart had confided in his wife that he believed his life was in danger and on his deathbed announced that he had been poisoned - though he was never able to name his murderer. Now, as Nannerl sets off for Vienna to pay her final respects, she finds herself entering a web of suspicion and intrigue involving rival composers, jealous lovers, and sinister creditors, where even Mozart's masonic brothers - including Prince Lichnowsky - harbor dark secrets about their onetime friend. And as Nannerl digs deeper into the mystery surrounding Mozart's demise, the tempo quickens, and her brother's black fate threatens to engulf Nannerl as well.

Members Reviews:

Enticing mystery for history buffs and music lovers

I'm a big fan of the author's mystery series set in contemporary Palestine and featuring an aging schoolmaster trying to be a voice of sanity in an insane world. Matt Rees couldn't have ventured farther afield from his traditional stomping grounds for this new work, and yet it worked well enough that I'm interested to see what he tackles next.

Leaving aside the somewhat clunky framing device, the novel starts on a wintry day in a small village outside Salzburg, where Mozart's elder sister has married and settled down to raise five stepchildren and two of her own. But it's 1791, a letter arrives to bring her news of her brother's demise -- and informs here he had insisted he had been poisoned. Nannerl (Anna Maria) immediately sets off to investigate, and is caught up in a whirlwind of plots and counterplots, spies and policemen, Masons and musicians. Was it jealousy, politics or Masonic conspiracy that brought the genius's life to a premature close?

Rees is less skilled at bringing to life the personality of either Nannerl or her sister in law, Constanze, Mozart's widow, than he is in making "real" his Bethlehem-based schoolteacher. (That's a pity, as he clearly has insight into the world of music that he sees her as having relinquished with reluctance and regret.) But he crafts an intriguing, if sometimes over the top, tale that is at least somewhat plausible and certainly a lot of fun to read. And the Viennese settings are fabulous -- from the snowy streets to the Baroque palaces and the classic coffeeshops, Rees has the knack for capturing a sense of place.

This will appeal to fans of historical mysteries, and perhaps to music buffs as well. Don't expect anything genre-defying or ultra-literary; there are plenty of conventional twists and turns in response to which I occasionally found myself rolling my eyes and groaning. But it's an intriguing historical "what if" that is a great way to spend a few hours.