A woman and her young son flee to a convent on a remote island off the Breton coast of France. Generations of seafarers have named the place Ile de la Brume, or Fog Island. In a chapel high on a cliff, a tragic death occurs and a terrified child vanishes into the mist.
The child’s godmother, Maggie O’Shea, haunted by the violent deaths of her husband and best friend, has withdrawn from her life … her life as a classical pianist. But then a recording of unforgettable music and a grainy photograph surface, connecting her missing godson to a long-lost first love.
The photograph will draw Maggie inexorably into a collision course with criminal forces, decades-long secrets, stolen art and musical artifacts, and deadly terrorists. Her search will take her to the Festival de Musique, Aix-en-Provence, France, where she discovers answers to her husband’s death, an unexpected love-and a musical masterpiece lost for decades.
A compelling blend of suspense, mystery, political intrigue, and romance, “The Lost Concerto”explores universal themes of loss, vengeance, courage, and love.”
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Secrets abound in this romantic, passionate, exquisite, thriller that will consume you in a mad frenzy to devour every page. This is an easy five-star read, I would give it ten-stars if I could, yes, it’s that well written, and that mesmerizing. Every word is a gem, every sentence a delight. From the first page, I was lost in the mystery.
At a convent off the coast of Brittany, a woman and her child seek refuge. Candlelight glints off the blade of a Laguiole dagger, a sinister act by a man with yellow eyes, and the child disappears.
Maggie O’Shea is mourning the loss of her journalist husband, who drowned in a boating accident off the south of France coast. A concert pianist, she hasn’t played the piano since Johnny O’Shea’s death. Her godson is missing, and she is determined to find him. So begins this concert of a book, interlaced with beautiful music. Before you know it, you’ll be drawn into a web of art and music manuscript thievery, shady underworld characters, CIA secrets, and promises kept and broken. Only the pianist with wild raven hair can solve the mystery and right the past. But can she heal her own broken heart in the process? You’ll have to read this musical, passionate page-turner to find out.
Helaine Mario is one of those fiction writers with a serious talent for telling a story. Combine that with a heavy dose of the world of classical music composition and performance and a story that you won’t want to finish reading and you have her thriller novel, “The lost Concerto”.
3 stars
Sophia “Fee” Orsini and her young son Tom flee for their lives. They end up on the Isle of Fog in a derelict chapel. She is found there and stabbed to death trying to save her son. Tom disappears.
Maggie O’Shea, a classical pianist, is Tom’s godmother. She is already devastated by the death of her husband Johnny in a sailing accident off the coast of France when she receives news of Fee’s death and the disappearance of her godson Tom. Maggie cannot play the piano any longer; she feels she just doesn’t have it in her any longer. Fee’s husband Victor Orsini is someone Maggie knows as a bad man. He is controlling and won’t allow Fee her friends or even her little dog any more.
Enter Simon Sugarman into the picture. He is a government agent who met Maggie earlier when she was asking questions about Fee’s death. He brings with him a provocative picture.
Maggie learns of the possibility of her first love and father to her now thirty-year old son Brian still being alive after he was reported missing in the bombing in Lebanon thirty years earlier. All of these things draw her back to France.
What follows is a race around France chasing clues.
This book was plodding at best. The story was erratic and inconsistent. The boy didn’t speak then he did. The characters were not likeable. Maggie was so into her own grief that she had no consideration for anyone else. I did not like her. The bad guy was – well just bad. I won’t be reading any more of this author’s novels.
I really enjoyed this book, since I am a musician myself. Some of the thoughts about performing were very interesting, although they did not seem typical for the majority of musicians.
A great read
I found this book to be very good and I learned a lot about this area and the people and the times. It was informative and easy to read, but not captivating.
Quick easy read but one you want to finish!