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PAINTED VEIL
by Beverle Graves Myers
Poisoned Pen Press, March 2005
320 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1590581407


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It is 1734, and Venice is celebrating a fabulous wedding. Castrato Tito Amato finds himself singing secondary roles in the opera created for this wedding, because Tito has let fame go to his head and hasn't been practising as he should. He is understandably less than excited when the new star is introduced, a star with a well-known propensity for claques, up-staging, and being a grade-A prima donna.

There are financial problems at the opera company, which become acute when scene painter Luca Cavalieri is killed. Luca is a great scene painter, but there are questions about his off-duty activities. Tito is asked to investigate Luca's death, and he is glad to do so because it serves two purposes for him: it will ingratiate him with Maestro Rinaldo Torani, the manager of the opera house (if he is successful) and it will distract him from the antics of Francesco Florio, "the vain, arrogant, impertinent fool who was goading me to take a serious look at my own sorry behavior."

Tito meets Augustus 'Gussie' Rumboldt, an Englishman making the traditional Grand Tour and Gussie is enlisted in the investigation. While looking for Luca, before they discover that he has been killed, they go to his apartments. There they find a canvas which unsettles Tito. One of the seamstresses at the opera company is "sprawled across Luca's canvas in a state of exuberant undress." Liya is a Jew, an unlikely woman to be painted in such a pose.

Once Luca's body is found, the pressure on Tito mounts. There are indications that Luca has possibly been engaging in some fraudulent schemes, maybe with the collusion of some Jews, maybe not. The political situation in Venice is touchy; some of the wells have been poisoned and there is talk that the Jews are the culprits. There is a riot in the ghetto and a fire; Tito saves Liya and her sister Fortunata.

Liya's cousin and probable fiance Isacco is dead, killed by Christians. Tito is almost in love with Liya, who despises him because she thinks he started a rumor which started the riot. Yes, even castrato dream of romance.

Gussie is in love with Tito's sister Annetta. His family back in England will not be happy with this, or with the fact that Gussie plans on staying in Venice to be an artist. Nice complications for both young men. And there are others, as one might expect.

I enjoyed PAINTED VEIL, and I really hadn't been sure I would. One of the problems I have encountered in other historical novels, mystery and non-mystery, is the tendency of the author to give modern feelings and/or actions to characters. I can't say for sure that Myers doesn't do this, but not once did I find myself saying: "Oh, that's not right! S/he could never do that."

I did not solve the mystery, which indicates to me that Myers has a nice handle on plotting. I found myself liking most of the main characters, or at least being able to see them in a sympathetic light. Again, I don't know if the setting is accurate for Venice in the 1700s, but I was never jarred out of the story by descriptions which seemed too modern, or by events which seemed improbable. The descriptions of Jewish life, at least based on what I've read in other books, struck me as pretty much on the money.

I haven't read INTERRUPTED ARIA, the first in the series, but I didn't feel I was missing anything by not having read it. I certainly wouldn't mind going back and finding out more about Tito Amato. If you thought Anne Rice's CRY TO HEAVEN was enthralling, then PAINTED VEIL will give you another, perhaps more realistic (in that Tito is not the larger-than-life character Anne Rice created), view of a castrato's life. If you enjoy historical mysteries, or opera, and a good puzzle, then PAINTED VEIL should be on your list.

Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, September 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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