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Beverle Graves Myers

mystery writer

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Previous Books in the Baroque Mystery Series
All available in trade paper editions and large print

By clicking on the covers, books below can be ordered online. You can also order directly through the publisher (Poisoned Pen Press) or purchase at your local bookstore. See my links page to find an independent bookstore near you. And don't forget your public library--if they don't have the book you want, they can often
purchase it or request it through interlibrary loan.

INTERRUPTED ARIA (2004)

Interrupted Aria introduces the series and protagonist Tito Amato, a young castrato singer with a stellar talent for sleuthing. When Tito's opera debut is overshadowed by the murder of the prima donna and his friend Felice is unjustly accused, Tito races the executioner to uncover the truth. Along the way, the singer solves a mystery from his own past and comes to terms with the career the knife has bestowed on him. Above all, Myers captures the spirit of 18th-century Venice, an era of economic decline when the city reinvented herself as the dazzling pleasure capital of Europe.

Dick Adler of the Chicago Tribune says, "The best thing about Interrupted Aria is how quickly we slip into the world that Beverle Graves Myers has created."

PAINTED VEIL (2005)

The second novel in the series returns to the dazzling city-state of Venice to find Tito battling ancient religious hatreds. At the Teatro San Marco, Tito is chafing over being demoted to secondary roles when the body of Luca Cavalieri, a talented but unscrupulous scene painter, pops up in a canal. Assisted by Englishman Gussie Rumbolt, Tito discovers that Luca and his Jewish partner have been manufacturing fake religious relics. While Venice erupts in anti-semitic mob violence, Tito and Gussie follow the trail of a masked villian who wears the costume of the plague doctor.

A starred review in Publishers Weekly describes Painted Veil as "A wonderful view of elegant, decadent, nothing-is-as-it-seems-from-behind-the-masque Venice."

CRUEL MUSIC (2006)

The third installment of Myers' baroque-era series moves Tito and his associates from Venice to Rome. Pope Clement XII is dying, and the struggle to succeed him is on in full force. A corrupt Venetian senator is determined that his brother will be the next pope. To insure Tito's cooperation in spying at the villa of Cardinal Fabiani, a music lover who will control the coming papal election, Senator Montorio orders the arrest of Tito's brother on a trumped-up smuggling charge. Tito's mission is complicated when the corpse of a lovely young woman is discovered in Fabiani's garden. To snare an ungodly killer, Tito must learn to spy as well as he sings.

Robert C. Hahn notes in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, "Tito Amato is an endearingly sympathetic character whose company should be enjoyed for many more performances."