Rating: 
Summary: Lush prose . . . Wonderful
Review: If the first gorgeous chapter doesn't pull you into this story, you're not human and just haven't realized it yet. MJ Rose is not only a master of the inner landscape, but she describes the pull of the senses in a manner that makes me stop, still, and marvel. Although this story revolves around the music world rather than the art world (as in her previous work, Flesh Tones), the image of the writer that came to mind as I read was that of a painter with a fine brush, delicately stroking each line of rich color onto the canvas with infinite, exquisite care. For example, have you ever noticed how a portrait by an old master is utterly lovely in its entirety but when you approach you see that the lace cuff is amazingly composed of delicate threads of ivory, cream, milk, pearl, cloud, greyblue, lavender, shell white, snow white, and each brushstroke is laid down perfectly and deliberately but the ultimate effect is absolutely real lace resting softly on the woman's wrist? And you marvel, not simply at the skill but at the care? Well, that's how passage after passage of this book struck me, that the writer was painting each scene or person with a slow, exquisite touch -- and it knocked me out. I particularly enjoyed the portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship, and, okay, I admit, the sex scenes are incredible. Few novelists can match the lush sensuality of this prose. Best of all, I found the ultimate resolutions excellent. More than one mystery was solved, and loose ends were tied in ways I never expected but found immensely satisfying. A wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Psychological Mystery
Review: Journalist Justine Pagett escapes scandal, and returns to the US, where it is her assignment to write about composer Sophie DeLyon. But she receives threats warning her off, Sophie disappears and Justine learns of her own mother's secret. Compelling, this is a beautiful book, as much about food as it is of music. (A+)
Rating: 
Summary: A good mystery wrapped in lush details
Review: Journalist Justine Pagett's career is riding on a single story, the biography she has been invited to write of the enigmatic composer and conductor Sophie DeLyon, who runs a selective school for musicians--Euphonia--on 150 acres of prime real estate in Greenwich, Connecticut. By the time Justine arrives at Euphonia to meet her subject, however, DeLyon has gone missing and Justine has been warned off the story by a series of threats: *someone*, it is clear, does not want the truth about Sophie to come out. Just what that truth is and what has happened to DeLyon make for an interesting enough novel. But the bare bones of the tale aren't the half of it. *Sheet Music* is a mystery wrapped in the lush descriptions and broader themes of a piece of literary fiction. The story is awash in musical and gastronomic details--Justine is the daughter of chefs--and it explores, often movingly, incapacitating grief and its aftermath and the sometimes ugly "other" that each of us hides from the outside world.
Rating:
Summary: A soft satiny tale wrapped in a ribbon of sensuality....
Review: Justine Pagett, a jounalist who suffered a set-back in her career because while having an affair with one of world's greatest chefs she decides to write his profile and reveal a devasting secret that will ruin him. Of course, the article is printed because of it's sensationalism, but at the terrible cost of Justine's alienation from the jounalistic world where unethical behavior is not tolerated. At the time she is living in Paris where she has fled after the death of her mother. She leaves behind her father and sister and bears what borders on hatred for them. To Justine, her mother was everything and the loss is unbearable. She now is in a situation where she cannot practice her journalistic skills, her savings are dwindling and the big question is how to get back in everyone's graces. She realizes she must write a piece so important that she cannot be turned down. Sophie DeLyon, an eccentric classical composer and director who created the institution of Euponia for america's most gifted prodiges, has commisioned Justine to do her biography. Unheard of in jounalistic circles since Sophie has never even granted an interview. This is the chance Justine has been hoping for and she welcomes it with open arms. And so the volution begins and is spun into an almost unfathomable mystery. Justine must go back to New York and face the ghost-like places she and her mother shared...she must eventually face her father and sister...and after all her correspondence with Miss DeLyon she looks forward to their meeting at Euphonia...and a confrontation with her former lover, a lover who seduced her with his wonderful music. A composer of deeply sensual and evocative compostions. We feel the playing of this music and sense the effect of it because of how M.J. Rose presents it to us. The sensuality in this very well written novel is pervasive. Everything about Justine is portrayed sensually...her senses are so well tuned... Her sense of smell: raised in a family where her father was a chef and her mother a chocolatier..the kitchen aromas return to her again and again..and her mother's perfume, her father's pipe. She misses nothing and remembers all. Her senses of sight and hearing bring us wonderful pictures and sounds of both New York and Paris and her imagined images of her mother. Her sense of touch makes her love making,our love making. So softly and beautifully written...so deeply seductive...delving into the passionate depths of both heart and soul. The prose of M. J. Rose actually caresses and seduces the reader in a most beautiful and unforgettable way. Take this jouney with Justine through her loss, through her sorrow, her fears and her loves. Through the mysteries of not only Sophie DeLyon, but the mystery that is Justine herself.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read
Review: M. J. Rose keeps the reader interested to the point that they can't put the book down. Each book that she has written I find she gives each character a unique personality. You want to know what will happen in the next chapter with the character. I feel that anyone who picks up one of her books will be happy that they did.
Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful and provocative!
Review: M.J. Rose gets better and better with every book. I loved Lip Service, In Fidelity and Flesh Tones -- and I knew that I'd love Sheet Music. Again, Rose mixes suspense and erotica in this beautiful and lyrical account of a young journalist who gets more than she bargains for when she tries to redeem herself after a scandal with one of her articles. Justine Pagett flees from New York to Paris after the loss of her mother. Her grief doesn't allow her to see past what she wants. She returns to New York to research Sophie DeLyon, a distinguished composer. Little did she realize that she'd have to dig up more than she had anticipated after Sophie mysteriously disappears. There are various twists throughout the novel. The ending is flooring. Sheet Music's language is sensual, beautiful, dark and stark. I love how the author describes food and music in an erotic manner. The aspects of erotica in this novel, as opposed to her first two novels, are more subtle -- used as an undertone this time. M.J. Rose is quite versatile. Sheet Music is one of the best suspense novels I've read all year. You won't find bloody scenes and gruesome details in this one, for this is a clever erotic/psychological thriller. Highly recommended...
Rating:
Summary: Romantically somber tale of family, food and music
Review: M.J. Rose's "Sheet Music" combines elements of Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" and M.F.K Fisher's writing on family and food with Rose's signature undertones of eroticism and suspense. As you read, you're likely to give longing looks to both your kitchen and bedroom, but you're also likely to want to call your mom, first.
Rating:
Summary: Romantically somber tale of family, food and music
Review: M.J. Rose's "Sheet Music" combines elements of Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" and M.F.K Fisher's writing on family and food with Rose's signature undertones of eroticism and suspense. As you read, you're likely to give longing looks to both your kitchen and bedroom, but you're also likely to want to call your mom, first.
Rating:
Summary: A splendid read
Review: M.J. Rose's Sheet Music is a delectable confection. It's part mystery, part romance, part psychological drama, and entirely satisfactory. I kept reading along, hungry for more, while savoring each morsel I read. Rose writes enticingly about the sensual pleasures of food, music, and sex, while still telling a story with high drama and plenty of psychological truth. Escape literature at its highest peak, waiting to take you away to another world.
Rating:
Summary: Nancy Drew for Discerning Adults
Review: Never have I read a book that was both so sensuous and sensual. The tastes, the smells, the sights, the sounds, the textures. Wow! Through Justine the author explores both a mysterious disappearance and the mystery of grief. As in Du Maurier's Rebecca, or the works of Martha Grimes, the search is for truth buried in the past. The plot is compelling; a tight work of suspense that makes for good reading on its own. However, unlike Nancy Drew and her adult successors, Justine is capable of reflecting upon her own life, and acknowledging how grief for her mother has affected and colored her life. In short, all the fun of traditional mysteries, but full of delicious passages your brain will want to savor.
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