Review: Shadow Music

Shadow Music by Helaine Mario
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

SHADOW MUSIC

By
Helaine Mario

SYONOPSIS
Late in the Cold War, a young woman escapes from Communist Hungary, vanishing into the night with a priceless painting and a baby girl, setting in motion a decades-old secret that will change lives for generations to come.
Many years later, classical pianist Maggie O'Shea is drawn to Cornwall in search of a long-lost Van Gogh and the truth behind her husband's death. A journal from World War II Paris holds many of the answers, but only two people know where the Van Gogh is hidden now—a courageous nun and a man presumed dead.
Set against the backdrop of the international music and art world, Maggie finds herself on a collision course with three dangerous Russians who threaten all she holds dear—including her life and the life of the man she has come to love.
Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 is at the heart of this story that strikes the chords of every human emotion. Past and present converge in this haunting tale of loss, courage, vengeance and love.

REVIEW
My first “Maggie” novel was The Lost Concerto. Helaine invited me to read the beautiful work several years ago and I dove into a world of music, art, and love wrapped in skillful intrigue that had me mesmerized and lost to the world outside the pages of the book. I cried because it ended. The second novel, Dark Rhapsody was no less compelling and I am in the midst of rereading it as I want to revisit several of the lines of intrigue and look closer at how the characters have developed and grown with the telling of their stories.
Shadow Music reminded me of why this series cherishes precious space on my Much Loved Shelf in my library. Not many books can reach in and strike the deep chords that allow the reader to identify on so many levels with the characters in a book. Helaine has accomplished this with me in this series.
Maybe it is because I am a pianist, but the music literally floats up off the pages of the book and around the room and my body physically aches with Maggie’s as she lifts her head from the keyboard. The same plays for the artistic descriptions and the art history background that she weaves into the story. Only someone who has lived and breathed in this world could fully understand the true depth of how well Helaine spins the picture so that we all can get a full sense of the breadth of emotion and physical commitment a creative person devotes to their craft.
Helaine’s characters are not flat or two dimensional. They full-bodied and complex. They are not always who you first perceive them as, and there is not a character in the book that can be easily skimmed over. Each one is complex and has a multi dimensioned place in the story.
Interwoven with all this is an intricate, twisted plot of evil vs. good that twists over generations and across continents and countries that leaves the reader breathless and their head spinning. Life is interconnected. Only a brilliant, creative mind could pull a consistent thread through such a tangled web and keep a focus on it all. Helaine did just that and takes us along for the wild ride and barely allows us to breathe.
I have read the classics, the old greats, the new. There are authors that write books. Those that write novels. Those that write stories. Then there are authors that make the pages sing, that make the reader a part of the story. They draw you in and immerse you in the world they have created out of letters and words. They drown you in the world they have created and don’t allow you, the reader, back out until the last words of “The End” come floating up off the page. This is Helaine Mario. This is Shadow Music. Discover it for yourself.

Helaine Mario

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Helaine Mario is the author of four novels of suspense. Firebird (Amazon 2012) is a stand-alone Cold War suspense novel. The three novels in the Maggie O'Shea Classical Music Mystery series are The Lost Concerto (Oceanview Publishing, July 2015), Dark Rhapsody (Oceanview Publishing, July 2018), and Shadow Music (Oceanview Publishing, September 2021).

New York City born and raised, Helaine is a Boston University graduate. She married in 1969 and moved to Connecticut to raise her two children, volunteer at Save the Children, and write for the local newspaper.

In 1985, Helaine’s life took an unpredictable turn when her husband’s career brought her family to Potomac, Maryland. For all eight years of the Clinton Presidency, she was a White House volunteer for Tipper and Al Gore, and continues to be a passionate advocate for public service and women & children’s issues.

Because Helaine believes strongly in “giving back,” she has worked on several non-profit boards and, in 1998, founded The SunDial Foundation, Inc., which benefited our most vulnerable women, children and families for 20 years. She also created Project PJs, offering new books, bears and pajamas to under-served children in the community. Now, the Helaine and Ronald Mario Fund continues to support some 40 charities. All royalties from book sales go to programs that support reading programs and the well-being of children and families.

Helaine and her husband, Ron, now spend their time in Arlington, Virginia—where she continues her advocacy work—and Cape May, New Jersey.

She is grateful to be a cancer survivor and is most proud of her two children and five beautiful grandchildren. Her son, Sean, is the pianist who inspired the classical music background in The Lost Concerto.

When it comes to writing, Helaine wants, more than anything, to tell a good story, create characters with depth, and paint pictures with words. To make people feel. She wants to be a storyteller forever.

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