3 Review(s)

The fourth novel in the gripping Georgian mystery series chronicling the adventures of Robert Fairfax. A must-read for fans of historical crime fiction. Recuperating from illness in Chelsea - in 1764, a rural spot outside the jostling city - Robert Fairfax expects to be bored. But a chance meeting with his old flame Cordelia leads to his involvement with a very unusual family: the Mozarts of Salzburg, whose young son is the musical prodigy creating a stir throughout their tour of Europe. The boy is as inquisitive as any child, and it is this which makes him an uncomprehending but vital witness to the bizarre events surrounding the death of Mr Gabriel Chilcott, an elderly, wealthy and ill-tempered music-lover. His pretty young wife seems to have secrets she does not care to divulge, and the mystery deepens with the horrific discovery by the river of a local maid's murdered body. Fairfax's investigation of these strange events leads him to a puzzle that seems too great for his powers to solve - unless he can garner a critical clue from the remarkable little boy whom the world will know as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...