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This page lists novels that feature the eighteenth century Venetian opera singer and amateur investigator Tito Amato.

Interrupted Aria

Beverle Graves Myers

2004

A Tito Amato novel.

"Venice, 1731. Opera is the popular entertainment of the day. Tito Amato, mutilated as a boy to preserve his enchanting soprano voice, returns to the city of his birth with his friend Felice, a singer 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 astonishing secrets lurking behind the masks of his own family and friends."

Painted Veil

Beverle Graves Myers

2005

A Tito Amato novel.

"Venice, 1734. Neglecting his vocal practice for dubious pleasures, singer Tito Amato finds himself demoted to secondary roles and overshadowed by a visiting star. When the murder of scene painter Luca Cavalieri threatens to close the opera house, Tito jumps at the chance to regain his worth by finding the killer. Suspicion falls on members of a Jewish ghetto family that produces masks for the theater. But Tito discovers a mysterious veil that leads him in a different direction. Assisted by Augustus Rumbolt, an Englishman making his Grand Tour, Tito is soon on the trail of Dr. Palantinus, a masked figure who heads a secret society that charges exorbitant fees to partake of its enticing rituals. But who is behind the mask of Palantinus? Tito's search for the answer pierces the treacherous depths of a city dedicated to masquerade and pleasure, where ancient hatreds thrive, cultures uneasily coexist, and where opera is the stuff of daily life."

Cruel Music

Beverle Graves Myers

2006

A Tito Amato novel.

"Tito Amato returns from an operatic tour to find his merchant brother Alessandro imprisoned on a trumped-up smuggling charge, a capital crime in 1740 Venice. The senator who controls Alessandro's fate is determined to have a Venetian as the next pope. He forces Tito to Rome to sing - and spy - at the villa of a powerful, music-loving cardinal who will control the coming papal election. As he serenades Cardinal Fabiani and his guests, Tito peers into the dark mirror of Roman politics. Pope Clement XII is sinking fast, and two candidates emerge as leading contenders for St. Peter's throne. Will Fabiani support the highborn Venetian whose secret passion is tinkering with electrical experiments or the humble cardinal with the gift of healing and a mysterious past? Then a beautiful corpse is discovered in Fabiani's garden and Tito - assisted by his irrepressible manservant Benito and Englishman Gussie Rumbolt - must wrestle with events that could change the course of history."

The Iron Tongue of Midnight

Beverle Graves Myers

2008

A Tito Amato novel.

"In September of 1740, singer Tito Amato receives a curious invitation. The German composer Karl Johann Weber is rehearsing a new opera at an isolated villa nestled in the hills of the Venetian mainland. Would Tito accept the lead role? Puzzled by the air of secrecy that enshrouds the production, but attracted by a generous fee, Tito agrees. Happily, Tito will not be traveling alone. Artist Gussie Rumbolt, Tito’s friend and brother-in-law, has also been summoned to paint scenes of the estate’s grape harvest. The countryside is awash with the golden hues of autumn, but the bucolic mood quickly turns menacing when a notorious figure from Tito’s past turns up at the villa. Then at the stroke of twelve, a soprano stumbles over a stranger who has been beaten to death with the clock pendulum. With the local constable away on a boar hunt, the midnight murderer has struck with impunity, raising terror to a fevered crescendo. So Tito pursues his own quest for answers—a quest that leads straight into the painful secrets of his heart and beyond."

Her Deadly Mischief

Beverle Graves Myers

2009

A Tito Amato novel.

"Venice, 1742. Tito Amato has regained his zest for performing and is once again singing lead roles at the Teatro San Marco. On opening night, the famous castrato has the entire audience entranced-except for one box with its scarlet curtains stubbornly drawn. Annoyed at being ignored, Tito aims the full force of his golden throat at the fourth-tier box. He is astounded when the curtains part and a woman tumbles over the railing. The victim is Zulietta Giardino, a mischievous courtesan involved with a young glass maker. As Tito was the only one to see the masked man who pushed Zulietta to her death, the chief of Venice's rudimentary police force requests the singer's assistance. Did a wager over a rival courtesan's jewels spell Zulietta's death? Or did the motive involve sinister events in the glass factories of Murano? Tito faces troubles of a different sort at home. His upstanding neighbors regard his household as an immoral den of theatrical riffraff and disdain his wife, Liya, as an apostate Jew. While Liya attempts to reconcile with her disapproving family, Tito strives to be a good father to his adopted son. The singer's difficulties collide when the masked killer transfers his vengeance to Tito's loved ones."

Whispers of Vivaldi

Beverle Graves Myers

2014

A Tito Amato novel.

"Venice, 1745, is an age of reckless pleasures, playful artifice, and baroque excess. An accident has reduced Tito Amato's glorious singing voice to a husky croak. But now the male soprano is determined to prove himself as a director. As the Teatro San Marco is losing subscribers to a rival company, the theater's Maestro Torani charges Tito with locating the perfect opera to fill the seats in time for Carnival. Surprisingly, a second-rate composer provides the very thing - an opera so replete with gorgeous melodies the public speculates it was written by the late Antonio Vivaldi. Even more disconcerting are the rumors swirling around Angeletto, a male soprano imported from Naples to sing the lead. Is the singer truly a castrato or a female soprano engaging in a daring but lucrative masquerade? Both matters turn dangerous when Maestro Torani is viciously attacked and killed. And Tito is the prime suspect. His own life as well as the future of Teatro San Marco now depend on his skills as a sleuth."