The Figaro Murders

Author : Laura Lebow
Publisher : Minotaur Books
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2015-03-31
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781466856196

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The Figaro Murders by Laura Lebow Pdf

In 1786 Vienna, Lorenzo Da Ponte is the court librettist for the Italian Theatre during the height of the enlightened reign of Emperor Joseph II. This exalted position doesn't mean he's particularly well paid, or even out of reach of the endless intrigues of the opera world. In fact, far from it. One morning, Da Ponte stops off at his barber, only to find the man being taken away to debtor's prison. Da Ponte impetuously agrees to carry a message to his barber's fiancée and try to help her set him free, even though he's facing pressures of his own. He's got one week to finish the libretto for The Marriage of Figaro for Mozart before the opera is premiered for the Emperor himself. Da Ponte visits the house where the barber's fiancée works—the home of a nobleman, high in the Vienna's diplomatic circles—and then returns to his own apartments, only to be dragged from his rooms in the middle of the night. It seems the young protégé of the diplomat was killed right about the time Da Ponte was visiting, and he happens to be their main suspect. Now he's given a choice—go undercover into the household and uncover the murderer, or be hanged for the crime himself. Brilliantly recreating the cultural world of late 18th century Vienna, the epicenter of the Enlightenment, Lebow brings to life some of the most famous figures of music, theatre, and politics.

Author : Susan Larson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2019-07-08
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1939113334

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The Murder of Figaro by Susan Larson Pdf

If you attended the opera in the 18th century, you could buy a program booklet with side-by-side translations of the text and a list of the participants. Think of "The Murder of Figaro" as one such souvenir booklet. Just add music--and imagination: It's 1786, and "The Marriage of Figaro," a new comic opera by Amadé Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte, has just begun its first onstage rehearsal when a corpse is discovered in the wings: it's the universally-loathed Imperial Censor. Despite a verdict of suicide, Da Ponte is arrested, and singers accuse each other of murder. In a desperate scramble to save "Figaro," Da Ponte, and their lives, Mozart and his clever wife Constanze set out to solve this deadly mystery. If they fail, "Figaro" will never play in Vienna! Boston diva Susan Larson was a professional concert and operatic soprano for thirty years. She not only sang a string of Mozart's most iconic soprano roles (Cherubino, Donna Anna, Papagena, Fiordiligi, etc.), she has read his collected letters and researched the lives of his contemporaries to create this antic vision of what might have been: Mozart plays Sherlock Holmes "The Marriage of Figaro" started life as a scandalous stage play by Beaumarchais, and became a scandalous opera by Mozart and Da Ponte. The unusual opera libretto format is divided into the classical five acts. Monologues become arias, and dialogs become duets. Since operas of the time often started with multiple overtures, "The Murder of Figaro" has three. The plot follows that of the opera in an extremely loose fashion, with lots of coffee breaks and detours into Shakespeare, other Mozart operas, hot news and scandals of the day, and the American Revolution. Says Larson about her approach to the book: "The original singers in "Figaro" have always fascinated me. They are largely forgotten, but were hard-working international stars in their day. Did they love the music written for them by the brash young upstart Mozart? Did they squabble and throw prima-donna fits? I invented rather messy lives for them, based on the lives of the many opera singers I have known in my life; sometimes behaving nobly sometimes abominably." Regarding Mozart himself, she adds: "I was a professional concert and operatic soprano for thirty years. Mozart was my hero and idol. We were teacher and pupil. I believe we were friends."

Author : Laura Lebow
Publisher : Minotaur Books
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2016-04-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781466856202

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Sent to the Devil by Laura Lebow Pdf

In 1788 Vienna, Court Poet Lorenzo Da Ponte is putting some finishing touches on the libretto for the premiere of his new opera with Mozart, Don Giovanni. A huge success when it debuted in Prague, the Emperor has decreed that it shall be performed in Vienna. But Joseph II is off prosecuting a less-than-popular war against the Turks, and the city itself is in a bit of turmoil. There are voices protesting the war, others who see Turks around every corner. Da Ponte, however, just wants to do his work and enjoy life. Alas, these simple desires aren't to be easily fulfilled. First, he's been getting a series of mysterious coded notes from unknown hands, notes that make no sense to him. Then his old friend Alois, a retired priest and academic, is viciously murdered and strange symbols carved into his forehead. Summoned to the police bureau, Da Ponte learns that Alois's murder was not the first. Determined to help find his friend's killer, Da Ponte agrees to help with the secret investigation. Caught in a crossfire of intrigue both in the world of opera and politics, Da Ponte must find the answer to a riddle and expose a killer before he becomes the next victim.

Author : Charles Dickens,Edgar Allan Poe,Anna Katharine Green,Arthur Conan Doyle,Mary Roberts Rinehart,John Kendrick Bangs,Agatha Christie,Robert Barr,Ellis Parker Butler,Maurice Leblanc,Wilkie Collins,Edgar Wallace,Melville Davisson Post,R. Austin Freeman,A. E. W. Mason,E. W. Hornung,G. K. Chesterton,Victor L. Whitechurch
Publisher : DigiCat
Page : 8608 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2023-11-08
Category : Fiction
ISBN : EAN:8596547715306

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THE OBVIOUS CLUE - Ultimate Murder Mystery Collection by Charles Dickens,Edgar Allan Poe,Anna Katharine Green,Arthur Conan Doyle,Mary Roberts Rinehart,John Kendrick Bangs,Agatha Christie,Robert Barr,Ellis Parker Butler,Maurice Leblanc,Wilkie Collins,Edgar Wallace,Melville Davisson Post,R. Austin Freeman,A. E. W. Mason,E. W. Hornung,G. K. Chesterton,Victor L. Whitechurch Pdf

This meticulously edited mystery collection is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Edgar Wallace: The Four Just Men The Clue of the Twisted Candle Victor L. Whitechurch: The Canon in Residence Anna Katharine Green: The Leavenworth Case A Strange Disappearance The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow That Affair Next Door Lost Man's Lane The Circular Study G. K. Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown The Wisdom of Father Brown The Donnington Affair Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Edgar Allan Poe: The Murders in the Rue Morgue The Mystery of Marie Rogêt The Purloined Letter Charles Dickens: Hunted Down Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone The Woman in White The Haunted Hotel Robert Barr: The Triumph of Eugéne Valmont Jennie Baxter, Journalist The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs The Adventure of the Second Swag E. W. Hornung: The Amateur Cracksman The Black Mask; or, Raffles: Further Adventures A Thief in the Night Mr. Justice Raffles John Kendrick Bangs: Mrs. Raffles R. Holmes & Co Melville Davisson Post: The Sleuth of St. James's Square Ellis Parker Butler: Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective Maurice Leblanc: Arsene Lupin The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin R. Austin Freeman: Dr. Thorndyke's Cases The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke Dr. Thorndyke's Casebook A. E. W. Mason: At the Villa Rose The Affair at the Semiramis Hotel Mary Roberts Rinehart: The Circular Staircase The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry Tish – The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions More Tish Agatha Christie: The Mysterious Affair at Styles The Murder on the Links The Kidnapped Prime Minister The Million Dollar Bond Robbery The Secret Adversary

Author : John Morris
Publisher : Seren
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2018-03-04
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9781781725306

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The Clydach Murders by John Morris Pdf

Is Dai Morris a brutal murderer or the victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice? Author and former solicitor John Morris investigates the Clydach murders, which occurred in 1999, for which Dai Morris was convicted in 2006. In a case which shocked the country Mandy Power, her bed-ridden mother and her two young daughters were battered to death. The crime sparked a huge investigation yet the police made little progress. This widely researched book contends that Morris, convicted for the murders in 2006, is a scapegoat, an innocent man against whom justice was miscarried. No forensic evidence or DNA connected him to the crime; he was convicted because he lacked of a solid alibi, because his gold chain was found in Power's house and because, as a man with a criminal record, he initially lied to the police. Morris's case is to be heard in the Court of Appeal, probably in 2018, in the light of new evidence, including DNA testing and falsification of police documents. South Wales Police was notorious in the period 1980 to 2010 for false convictions on fabricated evidence. Significantly, previous suspects for the Clydach murders include former police officers, one of whom was having a lesbian affair with Mandy Power. There is every possibility that Dai Morris has suffered a miscarriage of justice. The author studied the police files and court papers, and discussed the case with key witnesses and experts. He is convinced that Morris is the victim of a conspiracy to falsely convict. The brutal murder of an entire family is a horrible thing but to compound it with an unsafe conviction shows a disrespect to the victims, to their relatives, to the family of Dai Morris and to the law. This new edition includes a short Postcript of new evidence generated by the original book, which casts even further doubt on the safety of the conviction of Dai Morris.

Author : Ellis Peters
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 133 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2016-03-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781480444553

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Funeral of Figaro by Ellis Peters Pdf

An opera singer drops dead onstage in a pitch-perfect puzzler from the Edgar Award–winning author of the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael. A plane crash kills the lead actor of the Leander Theatre’s production of The Marriage of Figaro, in the middle of their rehearsals. The crew, based on the outskirts of London, is shaken. Luckily—or not—owner Jimmy Clash has found a replacement in world-class baritone Marc Chatrier, a notorious womanizer, liar, and all-around cad. Chatrier’s presence immediately causes tensions to rise dramatically among a close-knit opera “family,” especially when he starts paying too much attention to Jimmy’s star-struck teenage daughter. Then, without warning, the despised singer drops dead in the middle of a performance. That’s the cue for audience member Detective Inspector Musgrave to make his grand entrance. But the able police investigator is unprepared for the complex drama awaiting him backstage, and a tragically twisted plot that includes dark secrets, jealousies, old grudges, and murder most foul. As always, the Edgar, Agatha, and Gold Dagger Award–winning author of the Brother Cadfael Mysteries “writes with undiminished skill” (The Times, London).

Author : Libby Klein
Publisher : Kensington Cozies
Page : 313 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2020-12-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781496723406

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Wine Tastings Are Murder by Libby Klein Pdf

It's vintage Poppy McAllister when the gluten-free baker and B&B owner tries to solve a murder at a Cape May winery . . . When Poppy and Aunt Ginny agreed to host a Wine and Cheese Happy Hour for a tour group at their Butterfly House Bed and Breakfast on the Jersey Shore, they never anticipated such a sour bunch. Grumpy guest Vince Baker should be in a better mood—he’s filthy rich and on his honeymoon with his much younger wife Sunny, who seems to dote on him almost as much as her high-spirited teacup Pomeranian, Tammy Faye Baker. But the honeymoon is over when Vince drops dead the next day touring the Laughing Gull Winery. Turns out he's been poisoned, and it seems like everybody on the tour is hiding something. Now Poppy has to put her gluten-free baking on the back burner and bottle up her feelings for the two men in her life while she charges after a bitter killer with a lethal case of sour grapes . . . Includes Seven Recipes from Poppy’s Kitchen! “Fans of Chopped will have fun juggling the complicated set of suspects and following a romantic triangle that has yet to be resolved.” —Kirkus Reviews on Restaurant Weeks Are Murder

Author : Thomas Sanchez
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 1978
Category : Fiction
ISBN : UTEXAS:059173023654984

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Zoot-Suit Murders by Thomas Sanchez Pdf

It's the tumultuous days of World War II and from the mean streets of the Los Angeles barrio to the mansions of the Hollywood Hills the atmosphere is choked with tension. Nathan Younger, an undercover agent, is investigating the brutal murder of two FBI men and the infiltration of zoot-suit gangs by fascists when he crosses paths with Kathleen La Rue, a beautiful apostle of a bizarre religious cult. The search for the killers leads these two improbable lovers along a dangerous trail of heroin pushers, movie stars, and fanatical politicians. Like his lavishly praised novels Rabbit Boss and Mile Zero, Thomas Sanchez's Zoot-Suit Murders combines a tautly arched narrative with fiercely visual prose and a starkly revisionist view of the American melting pot.

Author : Aaron Freundschuh
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 267 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2017-01-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781503600973

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The Courtesan and the Gigolo by Aaron Freundschuh Pdf

The intrigue began with a triple homicide in a luxury apartment building just steps from the Champs-Elyseés, in March 1887. A high-class prostitute and two others, one of them a child, had been stabbed to death—the latest in a string of unsolved murders targeting women of the Parisian demimonde. Newspapers eagerly reported the lurid details, and when the police arrested Enrico Pranzini, a charismatic and handsome Egyptian migrant, the story became an international sensation. As the case descended into scandal and papers fanned the flames of anti-immigrant politics, the investigation became thoroughly enmeshed with the crisis-driven political climate of the French Third Republic and the rise of xenophobic right-wing movements. Aaron Freundschuh's account of the "Pranzini Affair" recreates not just the intricacies of the investigation and the raucous courtroom trial, but also the jockeying for status among rival players—reporters, police detectives, doctors, and magistrates—who all stood to gain professional advantage and prestige. Freundschuh deftly weaves together the sensational details of the case with the social and political undercurrents of the time, arguing that the racially charged portrayal of Pranzini reflects a mounting anxiety about the colonial "Other" within France's own borders. Pranzini's case provides a window into a transformational decade for the history of immigration, nationalism, and empire in France.

Author : Thomas Hoobler,Dorothy Hoobler
Publisher : Little, Brown
Page : 301 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2009-04-27
Category : History
ISBN : 9780316052535

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The Crimes of Paris by Thomas Hoobler,Dorothy Hoobler Pdf

Turn-of-the-century Paris was the beating heart of a rapidly changing world. Painters, scientists, revolutionaries, poets -- all were there. But so, too, were the shadows: Paris was a violent, criminal place, its sinister alleyways the haunts of Apache gangsters and its cafes the gathering places of murderous anarchists. In 1911, it fell victim to perhaps the greatest theft of all time -- the taking of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Immediately, Alphonse Bertillon, a detective world-renowned for pioneering crime-scene investigation techniques, was called upon to solve the crime. And quickly the Paris police had a suspect: a young Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso....

Author : Augusto De Angelis
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781782271703

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The Murdered Banker by Augusto De Angelis Pdf

A body is discovered in a Milan apartment, and Inspector De Vincenzi investigates. The apartment happens to belong to and old university friend of his, Aurigi. When the body turns out to be that of Aurigi's banker, and a phial of prussic acid is discovered in the bathroom, suspicion falls on the apartment's owner, and De Vincenzi is agonisingly torn between his sense of duty and his loyalty to an old comrade... This intensely dramatic mystery from the father of the Italian crime novel, Augusto de Angelis, is the first to feature his most famous creation--Inspector De Vincenzi.

Author : Steven Levingston
Publisher : Anchor
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2015-03-17
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9780307950307

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Little Demon in the City of Light by Steven Levingston Pdf

A delicious true crime account of a murder most gallic—think CSI Paris meets Georges Simenon—whose lurid combination of sex, brutality, forensics, and hypnotism riveted first a nation and then the world. In 1889, the gruesome murder of a lascivious court official at the hands of a ruthless con man and his pliant mistress launched the trial of the century. When Toussaint-Augustin Gouffé entered 3, rue Tronson du Coudray, expecting a delightful assignation with the comely Gabrielle Bompard, he was instead murdered by Gabrielle and her lover, Michel Eyraud. An international manhunt chased the infamous couple from Paris to America’s West Coast, culminating in a sensational trial that investigated the power of hypnosis to possess, control, and even kill. As the inquiry into the guilt or innocence of the woman the French tabloids dubbed the “Little Demon” intensified, the most respected minds in France vehemently debated: Was Gabrielle Bompard the pawn of her mesmerizing lover or simply a coldly calculating murderess capable of killing a man in cold blood?

Author : Theodore L. Flood,Frank Chapin Bray
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 808 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 1897
Category : Electronic
ISBN : UOM:39015074638597

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The Chautauquan by Theodore L. Flood,Frank Chapin Bray Pdf

Author : Claude Izner
Publisher : Minotaur Books
Page : 325 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2009-09-15
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781429953115

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Murder on the Eiffel Tower by Claude Izner Pdf

Murder on the Eiffel Tower is painstakingly researched, an effortless evocation of the glorious City of Light, and an exciting opening to a promising series featuring Victor Legris. The brand-new, shiny Eiffel Tower is the pride and glory of the 1889 World Exposition. But one sunny afternoon, as visitors are crowding the viewing platforms, a woman collapses and dies on this great Paris landmark. Can a bee sting really be the cause of death? Or is there a more sinister explanation? Enter young bookseller Victor Legris. Present on the tower at the time of the incident, and appalled by the media coverage of the occurrence, he is determined to find out what actually happened. In this dazzling evocation of late nineteenth-century Paris, we follow Victor as his investigation takes him all over the city and he suspects an ever-changing list of possible perpetrators. Could mysterious Kenji Mori, his surrogate father and business partner at the bookstore Legris operates, be involved in the crime? Why are beautiful Russian illustrator Tasha and her colleagues at the newly launched sensationalist newspaper Passepartout always up-to-date in their reporting? And what will Legris do when the deaths begin to multiply and he is caught in a race against time? Winner of the prestigious Michel Lebrun French Thriller Prize

Author : Patrick Süskind
Publisher : Random House
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2015-06-25
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780241975329

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Perfume by Patrick Süskind Pdf

An erotic masterpiece of twentieth century fiction - a tale of sensual obsession and bloodlust in eighteenth century Paris 'An astonishing tour de force both in concept and execution' Guardian In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name has been forgotten today. It is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succinctly, wickedness, but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent . . . 'A fantastic tale of murder and twisted eroticism controlled by a disgusted loathing of humanity . .. Clever, stylish, absorbing and well worth reading' Literary Review 'A meditation on the nature of death, desire and decay . . . A remarkable début' Peter Ackroyd, The New York Times Book Review 'Unlike anything else one has read. A phenomenon . . . [It] will remain unique in contemporary literature' Figaro 'An ingenious and totally absorbing fantasy' Daily Telegraph 'Witty, stylish and ferociously absorbing' Observer