Rating: 
Summary: Unredeeming
Review: As a musician and mystery-lover, I expected to thoroughly enjoy this book. I pitched it less than a third of the way through. The protagonist is one of the most obnoxious narrators I've ever encountered - every woman's nightmare date, self-aggrandizing, self-pitying and self-absorbed. The plot seems to be a take-off on the DaVinci Code (another terrible book). There are too many good books to waste time reading bad books.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Journey
Review: For those who not only study music, but feel it - this is a wonderful book. Written from a point of view of a real connoisseur of music history and performance, "Night Music" explores the deeper dimentions of how listeners experience music - Mozart in particular. One gets a sense that Harrison Gladwell Slater has seen and heard such a world in Mozart's work, it is a delight that he shares it with us in these pages. Look out for this title. This is only its first leg of the journey.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty, Mystery and Murder
Review: I found NightMusic a very interesting read. It takes the reader into a world of beauty, muysic, and interesting people. Plus, it has an excellent mystery plot. Although NightMusic takes place in the present time, it also goes back into the epoch of Mozart and works well as a period novel. The description of the cities (Nancy, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Prague, London, Geneva, Salzburg) are so real, I felt like I was there.
Rating:
Summary: Being an Amature Mozart Lover...
Review: I picked up this novel, not having any training in classical music. I just know good, soul-stirring music when I hear it and Mozart's compositions "do it" for me. What does this have to do with this book you might say? Remarkably enough, Slater manages to describe, in the written word, what one experiences when listening to moving Mozart piece. The love and passion for Mozart and his works, results in some interesting, even bizzare human behavior on the part of the characters in the book. One wonders how evil, murder and mystery can evolve out of something so beautiful as "Night Music". Harrison Slater's book shows us how.
Highly recommended, whether you're an expert on Mozart, or a novice like myself.
Rating:
Summary: An Edifying Mystery
Review: I recently purchased a copy of this mystery from Amazon.com on the recommendation of a friend who always seems to know just what will appeal to me. I love all fiction, including murder mysteries, but what always attracts me most is novels that make it possible for me to learn something about some serious discipline (non-fiction is usually just too dry for me). In a murder mystery I am always looking for something more than just an ingenious detection (interesting characters, interesting settings, etc.). This work, based on the experiences of a vulnerable, impoverished Mozart scholar, has everything to offer--perceptive character sketches, a wealth of information about European history and culture, all wrapped around a very clever mystery story. Like many casual music lovers, I am frequently intimidated by the wealth of repertory, but one thing this work provides is a loving description of many Mozart masterpieces that makes you want to go out and buy some CD's straightaway. Let's see if I can remember all of the things I learned about--art, architecture, European history, music history, food, travel, and poison. Maybe there are some more. Anyway, coming across this book will solve a lot of my problems with Christmas shopping this year!
Rating:
Summary: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The plot is complicated but the author sustains the reader's interest. Mixing history with a fictional character, the story centers around a musicologist who has found the lost Mozart diaries. This discovery leads to a series of events involving intrigue and murder. The writer's description of Europe, the cities, hotels, and monuments is wonderful, as the reader believes he/she is there. I especially liked the quotations leading off the chapters and their linkage to the plot. The culinary descriptions are exquisite. It makes you want to try those sophisticated dishes, wines, and champagnes. The diaries keep you in suspense. Which ones are true? Lust, greed, love, and beauty are not lacking either. Much can be learned from this book which offers a strong cultural slant to a good story. Every college student would benefit greatly from reading it.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite read since the Da Vinci Code
Review: I was hooked by the Da Vinci Code, and learned some amazing things, someting I enjoy when reading fiction.
Night Music was a fantastic read, and it reminded me of the Da Vinci Code, except that it deals with the eighteenth century and Mozart. Some things I learned: that Mozart believed he had been poisoned; that his piano student was almost murdered with a razor on the day after Mozart's death by her jealous husband; that a musical instrtument was banned by the German police; that a forger of Mormon documents killed people to hid his crime. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Plus, I liked the mystery plot set in the present time. It was complicated, but it kept me turning the pages (I read deep into the night three times in a row). I'm planning to read it through again, because there's a wealth of interesting information in it. I would call it a film in a novel, maybe Merchant and Ivory.
Rating:
Summary: Suspense and Intimate Mozart
Review: Mr. Slater has created a masterpiece of suspense, in a glittering atmosphere of clear, concise descriptions and intimate knowledge of Mozart and his time. All the light is focused on his protagonist, who is both a scholar and a very human man, and the whole novel is permeated with a palpable fear which keeps the reader fascinated and asking for more.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Journey of Mystery, Intrigue, & Passion
Review: Mystery, intrigue, passion - we are drawn into a world of great wealth and made to experience the sights, sounds, aromas, & tastes as we perceive the lives of aristocrats, artists, musicians, tycoons and all those illustrious characters who inhabit this world. My thanks to Harrison Slater for a fascinating read.
Rating:
Summary: Slater's moving Mozart mystery moves
Review: NightMusic is a novel/mystery for everyone. It's Mathew's story about Mozart, Milan and so much more. The protagonist, Mathew Pierce, after finding what appears to be Mozart's diaries, travels in Europe, a guest of his mentor, Vicomte Rene de Laguerelle. In the process Pierce finds out much about the diary and more about Mozart's world. The plot moves quickly thanks to the authors writing style. Along the way you meet some interesting, sometimes wealthy, sometimes talented, and often complicated people some of whom know each other too well. Mathew doesn't know some of them well enough, and doesn't know others soon enough. The novel clips right along. It felt like I was watching a movie. The chapter in the monastery in Prague moves like "Indiana Jones" in a "Name of the Rose" setting. The descriptions of LaFavorite, de Laguerelle's estate, reminds me of "Restoration". Although, Laguerelle's estate also brings to mind so much of what I love about Versailles. AND, speaking of movies, Slater ought to consider writing screenplays. The descriptions of the people and places are accurate, detailed, involved, and surprising. Slater knows people well, and of course he visited all these places, and he shares his best research with his reader. When he talks of Nancy, for example, he has one of his characters mention "Nancy is beautiful, it was designed by a polish king (living in Nancy after loosing his throne). He uses & translates the Italian and French (and this novel is Italian and French) so subtly, so skillfully; you felt that you've always read French/Italian - even if you never have. Slater creates many parallels between Mozart and Matthew Pierce, and often the juxtaposition of other places, people, writings and cities is astonishing. The creator of the book jacket must have recognized these parallels and juxtapositions. Sometimes Slater weaves two people and two epochs into four or five paragraphs, sentence by sentence. Not only is this mystery a thrill, full of facts, and well written; this mystery moves, and it's moving!
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