The wolf and the watchman

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Laura Lebow

"In 1786 Vienna, Lorenzo Da Ponte is the court librettist for the Italian Theatre during the height of the enlightened reign of Emperor Joseph II. This exalted position doesn't mean he's particularly well paid, or even out of reach of the endless intrigues of the opera world. In fact, far from it. One morning, Da Ponte stops off at his barber, only to find the man being taken away to debtor's prison. Da Ponte impetuously agrees to carry a message to his barber's fiance;e and try to help her set him free, even though he's facing pressures of his own. He's got one week to finish the libretto for The Marriage of Figaro for Mozart before the opera is premiered for the Emperor himself. Da Ponte visits the house where the barber's fiancee works--the home of a nobleman, high in the Vienna's diplomatic circles--and then returns to his own apartments, only to be dragged from his rooms in the middle of the night. It seems the young prote;ge; of the diplomat was killed right about the time Da Ponte was visiting, and he happens to be their main suspect. Now he's given a choice--go undercover into the household and uncover the murderer, or be hanged for the crime himself. Brilliantly recreating the cultural world of late 18th century Vienna, the epicenter of the Enlightenment, Lebow brings to life some of the most famous figures of music, theatre, and politics"--

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Ėlen Gremiĭon

Argentina, konet͡s 1980-kh. Strana tolʹko-tolʹko nachala prikhoditʹ v sebi͡a posle mnogoletneĭ voennoĭ diktatury Khorkhe Videla. Odnazhdy psikhoanalitik Vittorio vli͡ubilsi͡a s pervogo vzgli͡ada v krasavit͡su Lisandru, vserʹez uvlechennui͡u tango. Proĭdet neskolʹko let, brak Vittorio i Lisandry medlenno razrushaetsi͡a, i vot odnim sirenevym vecherom pod zvuki tango Lisandra vypadaet iz okna. Sama ona reshila svesti schety s zhiznʹi͡u? A mozhet, za ee smertʹi͡u stoit kto-to iz pat͡sientov Vittorio, raskryvshikh na seansakh u psikhoanalitika vsi͡u podnogotnui͡u svoeĭ dushi? Ili Lisandra stala zhertvoĭ muzha - idealʹnogo kandidata na rolʹ ubiĭt͡sy? I lishʹ Eva Marii͡a, odna iz samykh vernykh poklonnit͡s talantlivogo vracha, ubezhdena v ego nevinovnosti i reshaet rassledovatʹ tainstvennui͡u smertʹ.

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Robin Blake

The year is 1740. Geroge II is on the throne but England's remoter provinces remain largely a law unto thenselves. In Lancashire a grim discovery has been made: a squire's wife, Doleres Brockletower, lies in the woods near her home, Garlick Hall, her throat brutally slashed. called to the scene Coroner Titus Cragg finds the Brockletower household awash with rumour and suspicion. He enlists the help of his astute young friend, doctor Luke Fidelis, to throw light on the case. But this is a world in which forensic science is in its infancy, and policing hardly exisits. Embarking on thier first gripping investigation, Cragg and Fidelis are faced with superstition of witnesses, obstruction by local offcials, and denuciations from the squire himself.

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Mark Mills

Max Chadwick is the British officer charged with manipulating the news on Malta in 1942 to bolster the population's fragile esprit de corps. When he learns of the brutal murder of a young island woman, along with the evidence that the crime was committed by a British officer, he knows that the Maltese loyalty to the war effort could be instantly shattered unless he can solve the crime quickly.