Free (iTunes DRM-free/K) Interrupted Aria by Beverle Myers [Baroque Castrato Mystery]

[ATDrake]

Interrupted Aria by Beverle Grave Myers is the 1st in her Tito Amato Baroque Mystery series, starring an operatic castrato in 17th century Venice, free courtesy of publisher Poisoned Pen Press who are also offering tie-in discounts on the rest of the series.

I've read this both from the library and from getting the 1st volume when it was one of PPP's 99 cent introductory special and recommend them as a fun, light, read with nice historical bits (and notes in the back as well). If I hadn't already bought the rest of them from Books on Board earlier during the sale before the extra discount pricing was offered, I'd be snapping them up right now.

Anyway, currently free without DRM @ iTunes (available to Canadians).

The 2nd book in the series is discounted to $2.99 in most outlets and the rest of them at $4.99 (regularly $6.99). They can be found cheapest and DRM-free via Books on Board while their 40-50% off sale lasts ($1.74-$2.90, and you get bonus Reward Bucks).

Here's PPP's author page with the series ordering number and buy-links to the major stores.

Description
The dazzling city on the lagoon is sailing toward the ruin of her maritime empire, determined to go down in a maelstrom of pleasure, music, and masquerade. Venice, 1731. Opera is the popular entertainment of the day and the castrati are its reigning divas. Tito Amato, mutilated as a boy to preserve his enchanting soprano voice, returns to the city of his birth with his friend Felice, a castrato whose voice has failed.

Disaster strikes Tito’s opera premier when the singer loses one beloved friend to poison and another to unjust accusation and arrest. Alarmed that the merchant-aristocrat who owns the theater is pressing the authorities to close the case, Tito races the executioner to find the real killer.

The possible suspects could people the cast of one of his operas: a libertine nobleman and his spurned wife, a jealous soprano, an ambitious composer, and a patrician family bent on the theater’s ruin. With carnival gaiety swirling around him and rousing Venetian passions to an ominous crescendo, Tito finds that the most astonishing secrets lurk behind the masks of his own family and friends.

[koland]

Yay! One I had not already bought.

[Synamon]

The first book is available for free on Amazon as well.