Helaine Mario

A young woman and her son escape to a convent on the Breton coast. She assumes they will be safely hidden there. She is murdered and her son is kidnapped. The boy's godmother, Maggie O'Shea, has turned away from her career as a concert pianist, but hears a recording of a concerto that reminds her of her husband that was murdered. She is led into an intrigue of stolen art, musical treasures, terrorists and criminals. It's a wild ride. Brava to the author. My thanks to Ms. Mario and Netgalley for a complimentary copy.… (meer)

This book by Mario starts a little slowly for me because it took a little while to get into it. However, once you get into it you really enjoy it. The characters are well developed and you get to know them. The plot certainly has enough twists and turns to keep your interest. I really enjoyed reading the book and am happy I received it from the Goodreads Giveaway.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" "To Whom It May Concern" and "Tell Me About the United Methodist Church"… (meer)

The Lost Concerto starts out on a late August night in Brittany France, where a woman and her little son are on the run. They hide at Norte-Dame du Sauf Retour, Our Lady of the Safe Return, she thinking that this would be a safe place until she figures out what to do next. Unfortunately their hiding place is not safe from the hunter and the woman dies and the little boy flees hoping to get away.

Maggie O'Shea, a classical pianist, has not played since the death of her husband in a boating accident. Her husband, Johnny O'Shea, a journalist is on a mission to see what happened to Maggie's best friend Sofia and her little boy Tommy. Maggie is still grieving but often feels Johnny's presence urging her on and to continue through her grief because she blames herself for his death as she was the one who asked him to try to find out what happened to her best friend and who now has Tommy.

Maggie has a close friend in the FBI and he enlists Maggie's help because picture surfaces that links a lost love to little Tommy.. The reason? Well it turns out that the murder of her friend Sofia could be part of an investigation into stolen art, music and terrorism. The person that the FBI needs to find turns out to be a former lover and father of her son Brian, who is also a pianist, Zachary Law was reported MIA years back. Zach is the one who may hold the key to this entire mystery if he is alive. Through the FBI agent, Maggie is to have a man by the name of Beckett who just wants to be at home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a kind of crusty person with baggage of his own along with her as she travels to France. Together they need to see if they can find Zach Law and figure out who and why Sofia Orsini was murdered and what about the musical masterpiece that has been missing for years.

This is one of those mysteries that you have to keep turning the pages because you just have to know what happens next. Lots of twists and turns to keep the reader interested. Lots of suspense, political intrigue and lost love. This novel has elements of vengeance, loss and courage. There are lots of good and enough bad guys to keep the reader interested. I enjoyed the authors way of telling a story with a fast paced, page turning theme and well thought out characters. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a well written, compelling story. This is the author's second suspense novel, the first was Firebird published in 2013.

I received a copy of the book for review and was not monetarily compensated for said review. - See more at: http://www.celticladysreviews.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-lost-concerto-by-helaine-...… (meer)

Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over

The Lost Concerto tries to be many things without settling into the rules of any specific genre. It’s a mix between thriller, mystery, literary, and women’s fiction, among others. Some of these elements worked better for me while others, specifically the mystery, did not. The way the mystery is put together, the reader never has the information necessary to understand it until the reveal, and that’s with spending time in the points of view (POVs) of the characters who are driven by this information but choose not to mention it. This is a pet peeve of mine, and why I don’t tend to read mysteries, but still I kept reading this one despite the frustration.

Why I did is complicated, and has a lot to do with that mix of elements I mentioned. There are many POV characters beyond the two I dubbed the main characters, Maggie O’Shea and Michael Beckett. Maggie definitely holds that role, but the rest include a Treasury Department agent, a hired assassin, a terror financier, and many more. Though Shiloh never got the POV, the war veteran golden retriever plays a big role too.

The writing is beautiful and lyrical with description to enthrall all the senses. The sense of music as a background is strong and powerful. At the same time, the writing is not obtrusive, allowing the story about good people trying to the right thing even when it puts them in danger and the length bad people will go to protect themselves to take the main stage. If that sounds like a simple plot, don’t worry. It’s much more complicated than that because you learn how the good folks don’t always take the good path, and what drove the bad people to make those choices that sets them on the other side not just of the law but of all that is good. They are complex, obsessive, and sometimes even self-aware.

Nor does the book take itself too seriously, peppered as it is with music jokes and puns conveyed on whatever t-shirt Maggie happens to be wearing.

She is a concert pianist who cannot play in the face of the murder of her best friend quickly followed by the death of her beloved husband when he’d gone on a search for her friend’s missing son. Though labeled an accident, something about the whole thing doesn’t sit well and given the chance to do something instead of fade into darkness, Maggie jumps on board.

Maggie’s story is not the only one with roots in tragedy. There is a strong thread running through out of surviving and recovery carried on in Michael Beckett and his dog as well. Both suffer from post-traumatic syndrome having been injured on the front in Afghanistan. Nor are they the only ones, either. The story looks at coming back from the darkness and fulfilling promises made to lost loves.

It’s powerful and evocative. It’s also brutal and graphic at times, sparing the reader nothing. Other times, it’s funny and poignant. And throughout the whole winds a love of music that is tangible.

The Lost Concerto might not follow genre conventions, it might play games with what the reader knows that are author intrusion in keeping secrets even when we’re in the POV of characters who know, but the story itself is one to keep you reading, the flaws minor in comparison to the power of deep characters and complex situations.

P.S. I received this title from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.… (meer)