Description

With perfect time detail and a dapper Language investigator similar to Lord Peter Wimsey, Kate Ross is enchanting followers of Anne Perry and Elizabeth George--and making a faithful following of secret visitors wanting to accompany Julian Kestrel from adventure to gratifying adventure. Touring around the Region together with his ex-pickpocket valet, Kestrel finds herself swept up in the murderous and strange world of the safari. Four years back, the Italian marquis Ludovico Malvezzi was killed, and Orfeo, the small Language tenor he'd been teaching for a lifetime career around the glistening operatic period, vanished. As Kestral is irresistibly drawn in to the confusing situation, he confronts suspects at each turn: a runaway wife and her male soprano enthusiast; a generous nobleman at odds with Italy's Austrian overlords; a mocking Frenchman with excellent message; an attractive, intelligent widow who places Kestrel's desires; and the absent Orfeo, the broke protg who might just be considered a governmental broker.