Sheet Music

Rating:
Summary: Sheet Music
Review: Review of Sheet Music, a novel by M.J. Rose

The first page of Sheet Music reveals Justine Pagett's emptiness. Even as Justine makes love to her Parisian paramour, she recalls her dead mother and the love they once exclusively shared. Justine draws us to her pain; we are curious about her emptiness and the mystery that surrounds her parents' relationship. We discover that Justine has good qualities; she is capable of being a friend to certain women, but her relationships with men are shallow and troubled. The armor she wears against intimacy contributes to scandal and a tarnished reputation as a journalist.

On probation with her employer, Justine leaps at the opportunity to write about Sophie DeLyon, a renowned conductor and musician whose enigmatic life has long been the subject of speculation. To do the piece, Justine needs to return from her home in Paris to New York, where she must confront her estranged father, sister, and the raw memories of her mother's painful death. Justine also needs the help of a former lover, Austen, who was once one of DeLyon's handpicked students. During her mother's illness, Austen reached Justine with his music in a way that words couldn't. The memories of his sensuality still touch her in ways that make Justine fearful, because she vows never to suffer in love as her mother did.

Justine arrives at DeLyon's exclusive music academy, located on hundreds of acres of prime oceanfront property, on the very day that Sophie DeLyon disappears from her sailboat in a squall. Justine also begins to receive threatening messages that insist she stop writing about DeLyon. While Sophie's students, friends, and family members attempt to cope with her absence and possible death, Justine wonders why Sophie invited her to Euphonia to write the story-and what mysteries the message-sender is afraid Justine will disclose. Justine also realizes how much of an outsider she is among Sophie's entourage, and how she is locked outside their grief.

Justine understands obsessive grief, though. She observes the interaction of Sophie's two adult children, who reveal conflicting emotions toward their mother. Charlie, Sophie's grandson and Austen's thirteen-year-old son, is devastated by his revered grandmother's disappearance. He, Helena, Sophie's closest friend at the academy, and several of her returned students are inconsolable-and Justine recognizes her own emotional destitution in these people. She also, despite escalating resistance, begins to uncover some of the dark secrets in Sophie's life. Just as Justine must discover who Sophie was outside the spotlight of her towering talent and philanthropy, she must face her own grief and see her own mother as a whole person.

M.J. Rose delves into some important issues in Sheet Music. The novel examines obsession and selective memory. The reader realizes that some characters will untangle their emotions, while others will succumb to their blackness. Rose also studies the deep effect of music and art on individuals and she observes the isolation of pushing the artistic envelope.

I highly recommend Sheet Music, which portrays characters that stay with the reader after the last page, and whose sensuality and empathy touch the heart. Readers of mysteries, romance, and self-awareness novels will all enjoy this book.

Deborah Turrell Atkinson, author of PRIMITIVE SECRETS, a clever, contemporary mystery that reveals a Hawai'i that few visitors see, from the winding cane roads of Hamakua to the seedy side of Honolulu's Chinatown.
Poisoned Pen Press, October 2002

Rating:
Summary: Right on the money!
Review: Sheet Music brought back so many memories of my own mother, gone now for over 20 years! Rose's portrayal of the bond between mother and daughter is masterful!! I was 32 again and _was_ Justine -- smelling my mother's particular fragrances of powder and perfume, seeing her scarf of jewel tones, hearing phrases that I had pushed to the back of my mind. The recollections brought both laughter and tears.The prose is exceptional and underscored beautifully by the music that fills the book like surround sound fills a room. This combination created by the author for her Justine to finally greive and heal is insightful for the reader as well.Sheet Music is the first book I have read by M J Rose -- but it definitely will not be the last.

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Summary: Not so much a mystery as a personal drama
Review: Sheet Music by M.J. Rose is touted as a mystery, but deals less with the mystery in question than it does with the protagonist's attempts to deal with the past.

Justine is a journalist who has been retained to write a article on the dynamic composer and conductor Sophie DeLyon. Sophie turns up missing, hence the mystery, and bits and pieces of her life find their way to Justine, fitting together in potential scandal, family controversy and the story that would make Justine's career.

The mystery, though, is on the back burner of the story (so to speak), as the overwhelming grief from the death of her mother, the estrangement from her sister and father, and an old lover press on Justine's mind and fight for the center stage.

Her memories of her mother are wrapped around smells and tastes from cooking with her, and come back unbidden with the crunch of an apple or the aroma of chocolate. Her father, also a chef, is unwillingly conjured up with herbs and spices. Her former lover, a cellist, haunts her memory through music.

The mystery of Sophie's disappearance was unexceptional, and is merely the canvas for Justine's attempts to come to grips with the past and move forward into the future. The strength of the book lies in the food and music imagery as Justine works through her memories to find some sort of peace with the past.

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Summary: Sheet Music-A Real Page Turner
Review: Sheet Music-A Real Page Turner

After a scandal stemming from a story she wrote threatened her reputation as a journalist, the chance to interview Sophie DeLyon, a famous composer who founded a prestigious school of music, is a chance for professional salvation for Justine. Justine is unprepared, however, for how returning to New York for the interview meant she had to confront her relationship with her family, her unreconciled grief over her mother's death, and her fear of being hurt by love as her mother had been. Then DeLyon disappears, upsetting the world of the school and creating a crisis for Justine herself, not just at the professional level but a personal one as well.

M. J. Rose's writing is beautiful, compelling, and profoundly sensual-not simply in the sexual sense, but in the sense that all of the senses are savored. Taste and hearing are particularly central to the narrative, as food and music are important elements in Justine's relationship with others. Justine's experiences of the senses-feeling the vibrations of the cello, the taste of a slice of orange, the sound of a flute playing-are all deeply embedded in memories, emotions, and her personal demons.

Part mystery, part romance, and part a story of psychological discovery, Sheet Music is a suspenseful, absorbing novel, one I found difficult to put down. I would definitely recommend it.

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Summary: insightful look at dysfunctional families
Review: Six years ago Justine's beloved mother, popular chef Pauline Pagett, died, but Justine has not let go. Instead she feels betrayed by her sister and father, as she never had the opportunity for closure. Instead of moping in Manhattan, Justine fled to Paris where she has lived and worked on a magazine. When her lover, Chef Henri St. Pierre, reveals he stole recipes from his mentor, Justine exposes him. Henri sues as he insists she invaded his privacy as this was bedroom talk not article discussion.

Her angry editor sends Justine back to New York where she is to write the biography of renowned musical conductor Sophie DeLyon. To Justine this is a chance to regain her reputation, but burying the hatchet with her family she feels will prove too difficult for her. As she meets Sophie's family and renews her relationship with Austen Bell, the superstar's former son-in-law, a brief lover, she finds her subject much more complex than she expected.

This is an engaging relationship drama that emphasizes the need for closure when a beloved individual dies. The story line grips the reader once Justine returns to New York as the incident in Paris seems unreal as one must ask why the magazine's legal department was not doing their job. However, the story takes off back in the States as the audience observes an insightful look at dysfunctional families with a lot of romance on the side.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written!
Review: There is so much to love in Sheet Music, it's one of those books that has everything that makes reading such an enjoyable experience. I loved the detailed descriptions of recipes and food. It had some incredibly sensual scenes and there was a very well planned and executed mystery that made it a page-turner.

However, it was the incredibly accurate portrayal of Sophie's emotional reckoning with the loss of her mother that resonated for me. As someone who has lost close family members including my mother I was blown away by how accurate author M.J. Rose was at capturing that kind of grief.

This was such a great read, enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Thrilling, Suspenseful, and Sexy!
Review: Thrilling, suspenseful and sexy aptly describe the characters and story behind Sheet Music by M.J. Rose. If you loved her other books, this one will keep you a fan. If you haven't read her other books, what are you waiting for?