Publication
Date: October 27, 2015
Source:
Vine
In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, violinist Julia Ansdell
happens upon a curious piece of music—the Incendio waltz—and is
immediately entranced by its unusual composition. Full of passion, torment, and
chilling beauty, and seemingly unknown to the world, the waltz, its mournful
minor key, its feverish arpeggios, appear to dance with a strange life of their
own. Julia is determined to master the complex work and make its melody heard.
Back home in Boston, from the moment Julia’s bow moves across
the strings, drawing the waltz’s fiery notes into the air, something strange is
stirred—and Julia’s world comes under threat. The music has a terrifying and
inexplicable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed.
Convinced that the hypnotic strains of Incendio are weaving a malevolent
spell, Julia sets out to discover the man and the meaning behind the score.
Her quest beckons
Julia to the ancient city of Venice, where she uncovers a dark, decades-old
secret involving a dangerously powerful family that will stop at nothing to
keep Julia from bringing the truth to light.
Playing with Fire
starts in a way that immediately portends that I’m in for an amazing story.
“From the doorway I can already smell the scent of old
books, a perfume of crumbling pages and time-worn leather … I step into a gloom
so thick that my eyes need a moment to adjust. Outside it’s sweltering, but in
here it’s strangely cool, as though I’ve entered a cave where neither heat nor
light can penetrate. Slowly, shapes take form in the shadows and I see
book-crammed shelves, old steamer trunks, and in the corner a medieval suit of
armor.”
Old books,
a mysterious antique shop – already I’m intrigued. But if you think that the
first chapter is all about slowly setting the scene, you’d be wrong. Gerritsen
loses no time in seizing your attention and doesn’t relinquish it until the
last page.
Alternating with
Julia’s narrative is the background of the Incendio waltz, which has to do with
forbidden love, despair, and unspeakable tragedy in World War II-era Italy. As
compelling as Julia’s narrative is, the harrowing story of the past moved me immeasurably. I
am always grateful to novels that have historical basis in fact, which leads me
to learn something important I didn’t know about before.
Like the Incendio
waltz itself, Playing with Fire increases in suspense and pathos with each turn
of the page. Warning: you might forget to eat dinner, like I did, so absorbed was I in finishing this book.
New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen earned international
acclaim for her first novel of suspense, Harvest. She introduced Detective
Jane Rizzoli in The Surgeon (2001) and Dr. Maura Isles
in The Apprentice (2002) and has gone on to write numerous other
titles in the celebrated Rizzoli & Isles series, most recently The
Mephisto Club, The Keepsake, Ice Cold, The Silent Girl,
Last to Die, and Die Again. Her latest novel is the
standalone thriller Playing with Fire. A physician, Tess Gerritsen
lives in Maine.
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