Set in the 1820s around Lake Como in Northern Italy, and with excursions to La Scala in Milan, this is a superior thriller which mixes quite an amount of erudition about opera with its more down-to-earth exposition of a double homicide. The hero is Julian Kestrel, Regency dandy and amateur sleuth, who is travelling in Italy with his ex-pick-pocket manservant, Dipper, and his friend Dr MacGregor. Also numbered among the cast list are a runaway wife and her counter-tenor lover, a liberal nobleman conspiring against Italy's Austrian overlords, a young singer with perfect pitch, and a beautiful woman who begins to intrude into Kestrel's daydreams. The exotic locale and historically authentic settings bolster a plot that is intricate yet plausible. And the whole thing is expertly paced to provide a long, highly pleasurable read.