The Lost Concerto

An island off the coast of France. the perfect place for a young mother and her son to hide – until there is a murder and the little boy disappears. Maggie O’Shea is horrified to hear of the disappearance of her godson. She is still trying to get over the deaths of her husband and best friend. An old photo that puts Maggie in mind of both the lost boy and her first love sets Maggie on a trail that will take her to a French music festival where she will encounter international terrorist plots, recall a lost love and finally understand her husband’s death

This title grabbed my full attention from the first paragraph and did not let up until the book was fished. The Lost Concerto struck the right notes on so many levels. Two recent deaths impact Maggie's ability to move forward. A request to help trying locate her missing godchild leads to more mysteries going back to World War II and to the mid eighties.

An excellent book and a fantastic, enthralling read, full of unexpected twists and turns. Lovely descriptive language and evocative presentation of places, with a well-developed and intriguing plot and a wealth of credible and, sometimes, flawed characters. The central character is engaging and likeable and she brings out a real desire in the reader to cheer her on to conquer both the demons within herself and those in society that have created havoc in her world.
The book is captivating from beginning to end and the way the different plots and characters are woven together works effectively. The fast pace and well structured storyline ensure readers will not want to put it down until they reach the end. The ending itself leaves the reader with unanswered questions and pause for thought, without leaving them unsatisfied or let down. Definitely a must-read for anybody who enjoys a good mystery thriller.

I don't know where to start raving about The Lost Concerto... the great, strong female lead, the unusual love story, the music that fills the novel, or Shiloh, best kick-ass dog ever? A great page-turner, I couldn't put it down. Maggie O'Shea, a concert pianist whose grief over the death of her husband has banished music from her life, gets entangled in an international conspiracy of stolen art when she goes looking for her missing godson. Helen Mario uses places that made an impression on her - mostly in France, but also in Italy, to set the intrigue. In a sea of teenage heroines falling in love with young dashing studs, Maggie stands out for being a middle-age widow, who is sexy, strong and smart. Her knight in shining armor is a retired, older colonel with emotional and physical scars, but who is still strong enough to beat a young, ruthless, Shakespeare-quoting psycho in hand-to-hand combat. I loved how the author references pieces of music, which you can't help but hear in your head as you read. But what I liked most of all is her compassion to animals. I don't watch movies where animals are mistreated. When animal cruelty rears its ugly head in books, I skip through the passages. In The Lost Concerto all creatures, big and small, are not plot devices, but characters with a soul, as it should be. Shiloh is based on Ms. Mario's real-life assistant, Stella "Fantastico" Shea, her three-legged rescue dog. Any character who will run into eight lanes of traffic to protect a dog is a heroine in my book. Five stars!!!

A 5 star thriller! This is a defining thriller, full of action, strength in characters and wonderful settings. It's non stop action and grabs the reader from page one and never lets go. I found this one of the best written books I have read all year. Brava! Thank you for the advance reading copy. A truly enticing read !

I’ve never been to France, played the piano, studied music or art (other than those brief “required” classes in high school) but after reading THE LOST CONCERTO by Helaine Mario I feel that I’ve experienced all four.

Mario combines music and the intriguing and dangerous world of kidnapping, murder, terrorists, CIA agents, stolen art, love and loss as she takes the reader into the life of Maggie O’Shea, former concert pianist currently earning her way as a music shop owner. Still grieving the death of her husband, Maggie is now dealing with the murder of her best friend Sofia Orsini and the disappearance of Sofia’s son Thomas when she is approached by a CIA agent who enlists her help in capturing Sofia’s husband, a suspected terrorist. Of course, the CIA agent has ulterior motives and the mission he is proposing is only the first layer in this tale of multiple layers and diverse plot threads.

I will not go into all the various twists that drive the narrative but they are many and serve to keep the intrigue and tension mounting as Maggie makes dangerous discoveries, comes to terms with the losses in her life and finally explores the opportunity for future happiness.

A young woman and her son escape to a convent on the Breton coast. She assumes they will be safely hidden there. She is murdered and her son is kidnapped. The boy's godmother, Maggie O'Shea, has turned away from her career as a concert pianist, but hears a recording of a concerto that reminds her of her husband that was murdered. She is led into an intrigue of stolen art, musical treasures, terrorists and criminals. It's a wild ride. Brava to the author. My thanks to Ms. Mario and Netgalley for a complimentary copy.

The Lost Concerto starts out on a late August night in Brittany France, where a woman and her little son are on the run. They hide at Norte-Dame du Sauf Retour, Our Lady of the Safe Return, she thinking that this would be a safe place until she figures out what to do next. Unfortunately their hiding place is not safe from the hunter and the woman dies and the little boy flees hoping to get away.

Maggie O'Shea, a classical pianist, has not played since the death of her husband in a boating accident. Her husband, Johnny O'Shea, a journalist is on a mission to see what happened to Maggie's best friend Sofia and her little boy Tommy. Maggie is still grieving but often feels Johnny's presence urging her on and to continue through her grief because she blames herself for his death as she was the one who asked him to try to find out what happened to her best friend and who now has Tommy.

Maggie has a close friend in the FBI and he enlists Maggie's help because picture surfaces that links a lost love to little Tommy.. The reason? Well it turns out that the murder of her friend Sofia could be part of an investigation into stolen art, music and terrorism. The person that the FBI needs to find turns out to be a former lover and father of her son Brian, who is also a pianist, Zachary Law was reported MIA years back. Zach is the one who may hold the key to this entire mystery if he is alive. Through the FBI agent, Maggie is to have a man by the name of Beckett who just wants to be at home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a kind of crusty person with baggage of his own along with her as she travels to France. Together they need to see if they can find Zach Law and figure out who and why Sofia Orsini was murdered and what about the musical masterpiece that has been missing for years.

This is one of those mysteries that you have to keep turning the pages because you just have to know what happens next. Lots of twists and turns to keep the reader interested. Lots of suspense, political intrigue and lost love. This novel has elements of vengeance, loss and courage. There are lots of good and enough bad guys to keep the reader interested. I enjoyed the authors way of telling a story with a fast paced, page turning theme and well thought out characters. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a well written, compelling story. This is the author's second suspense novel, the first was Firebird published in 2013.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Helaine Mario, and Oceanview Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book, which allows me to provide you with this review.

Mario takes the reader into the world of classical music, adding layers of mystery and intrigue to offer a well-rounded piece. Magdalena 'Maggie' O'Shea has suffered much in the past year: her best friend was murdered, her godson kidnapped during the same event, and her husband died in a freak boating accident. A classically trained pianist, O'Shea chose to leave that world behind and focus solely on running her small music shop in the heart of Boston after this trifecta of horrible occurrences. When approached by the US Justice Department, O'Shea is given a photograph that spins her life into added disarray, purporting to depict a long-dead love interest. O'Shea agrees to head to France to lure a wanted felon out of hiding and undertake her own investigation into her godson's disappearance. O'Shea's escort, a former military man, proves to be more than she bargained for, at times hampering her ability to effectively complete the mission at hand. While in France, truths are revealed that turn up additional mysteries, involving an ever-expanding collection of characters. At issue is not only the honour of O'Shea's best friend and husband, but the chance to bring down a terror ring before more havoc can be enacted on US soil. Mario constructs this story as precisely as a classical composition, leaving the reader to marvel in its intricacies and powerful nuances.

This being my first experience with a Mario novel, I remained somewhat guarded as to what I might expect. Throughout the story, Mario returns to the classical music theme, weaving it not only into the plot, but adding wonderful decorative language to substantiate the Maggie O'Shea backstory. The characters prove believable and the plot crescendoes at a considerable pace, leaving the reader to pace themselves for the full effect. Set in multiple locations, Mario uses the various settings to her advantage and yet keeps the story from getting too lethargic, which is helpful as some of the content can become a little heavy. Mixing drama, thrills, and a little romance into the story, the reader is treated to a variety of character and plot developments, sure to impress as well as entertain. With only a few minor factual errors, Mario offers up a well-crafted story whose movements leave the reader guessing as to its final resolution.

Kudos, Madam Mario for such a wonderful novel. I hope to see more from you in the future.

I know this is a cliché. I could not put this book down!

Maggie is grieving the loss of her husband and best friend. She believes her husband lost his life in the chase to find her godson, the son of her best friend. This leads her into a web of danger and intrigue.

This is a never ending, edge of your seat read. Between stolen art and musical masterpieces, you never know which way the story will turn. That being said, I loved the suspense of this novel, I just wish there had been more history attached to some of the artifacts discussed in this novel.

The tale is a little manipulative in places, but that is ok by me. I loved the wild ride!

It is rare for a book to catch my attention in the first sentence. This is one of those rare books. I felt drawn into the story. Feeling like I was actually there with the characters. Such a wonderful book.

As I sat down to review The Lost Concerto, I puzzled over which story to discuss, which tale to delve in to. Most times when you are treated to a well written novel, you have a central theme (story) and one or two side stories that can be told to add breadth to the tale. These could be stories that are running concurrently, back-stories that fills in the lives of the characters in the novel and adds depth and breadth to the central core and makes you love or hate the mainstay of the novel. Sometimes, you might even get a side story that are small flash forwards of what is to come and whets your appetite for the coming pages and might give you a false sense of security or fright by leading you astray.
Helaine Mario swept this reader off her feet. The mental score card came out as I began to track the numerous story paths through this complex and wondrous book that wrapped the reader in a web of intrigue. There were several concurrent storylines that contained overlapping characters. There were storylines with the same characters that flung the reader to the far and near past. Each story, be it short or a longer one that continued to pop-up throughout the book, peeled back a little more of the total picture. Each revelation changed the view of the panorama laid out before the reader, changing the viewpoint of what we thought and felt previously about a character or about where the story was headed. Who said, “nothing is as it seems, assume nothing”? The only absolute to be assumed was that “all was not fair in love and war”. Even as a reader, one felt ensnared in the tangled web of deceit that seemed to dominate both sides of this subtle war between the CIA and an ex-employee. With a musician and a little boy caught in the web and at the center of the battle. Who would win? Would there be a winner?
Helaine did a great job of her character development. Just like she did with her complex story lines, so she did with her characters. Just as you thought you knew who someone was, you discovered that they were not the person you thought they were. The friendships, the associations, the allies, the enemies; they seemed like fluid lines that moved and mixed. You didn’t know who to trust, who to believe. Much like the heroine, you had to stay focused on the reason – Max, the son of the heroine’s friend. Nothing else could matter. This is one book that will go on the must be re-read shelf. For with the coming of the last page, I knew I needed to read it again. I wanted to gain all the nuances that I missed in the first read. True, there were times I found myself rushing to turn the page, breathlessly waiting to see what the next page might reveal. In my haste to absorb the incredulity and rush of the action of the story, what could I have missed? Therefore, I find that I want to go back for a second read, knowing all, to wallow in the pure genius of the telling of the tale.
In my opinion, this is one book that should be up for multiple awards for fiction for 2015. I cannot begin to enumerate the reasons for listing The Last Concerto a FIVE STAR REVIEW!!!!
A free copy of this book was provided to this reviewer by Net Galley so that I could read and prepare a fair review of the book.

I must say this outright to avoid confusion in my review. I am not really into classical music, I haven’t seen one nor been into one. I’m not into musicals either. Although the only musical closest to me was the movie Moulin Rogue, just because I’m a big fan of Ewan McGregor.

However, after I read The Lost Concerto, I suddenly had this urge to watch a musical and sit on the front row.

Maggie was such an interesting character. The death of her husband and her best friend plus a missing godson devastated her. Her life somehow lost some spark as she dealt with her loss. Then a CIA agent shook her world when she saw a photograph of the man she had thought was dead. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie went through a lot of hurdles just to be able to get all the answers to her unending questions.

This book is quite long, as it was very detailed and descriptive, but the long read is worth it. The story of Maggie and her son and the musical plot was deeply thought of and very endearing. There was the really intriguing mystery that kept me turning the pages. With an excellent book like The Lost Concerto, I wouldn’t mind reading this over again.

The Lost Concerto - Helaime Mario 4 Stars Listening to music by writing words.
Sofia Orsini is desperately trying to outrun her husband. He’s demanded a divorce and full custody of their son Tommy. She and her son have finally reached the convent; Couvent de la Brume (the Convent of the Fog on a tiny island in Breton) where she’s hoping they will manage to stay hidden for long enough until she make further plans. Unfortunately, she hasn’t managed to hide her tracks and Victor has sent his “assistant” to bring them home. He finds them. Sofia is stabbed and Tommy is abducted.
Maggie (Magdalena) O’Shea, an international concert pianist, has taken the death of her husband, Johnny (drowned while trying to discover more about Tommy’s abduction) very badly. She’s lost all interest in playing the piano and is only barely able to face keeping her music shop; The Piano Cat, open. In fact, if it wasn’t for her friend Luze Jacobs, she doubts whether she would even bother to open it each morning. But this all changes when Special Agent Simon Sugarman, from the Department of Justice coerces her into helping him track down Victor Orsini, and hopefully through bringing this criminal to justice, she’ll find her godson, Tommy Orsini. (Maggie and Sofia had been best friends and Maggie is Tommy’s godmother)
Simon Sugarman’s a very good at persuasion! Maggie has agreed to go on a lecture tour and attend various music festivals in France and Colonel Mike Beckett, still suffering from the life-changing injuries he sustained from a bomb blast in Afghanistan; agrees to leave his log cabin on the edge of a lake and go as Maggie’s personal bodyguard. Joining them in France is the dog rescued after the same bomb blast that injured Mike. Dog (has no name) is just as damaged. He lost a leg in the bomb blast and suffers from PTSD. What has really stirred Maggie from her depression is the photograph Simon Sugarman showed her of Victor Orsini with a man who looks identical to her son’s father, Zach Law, her lover and fellow concert pianist. He’d gone to Beirut on a peace keeping mission and was declared MIA after a bomb attack. For the past thirty years she’s mourned his death. Could it be possible that he not only survived, but has changed his name and written a concerto? This is a book full of complicated and often quite confusing threads. It shows how Helaime Mario’s mind must work; writing a story as if writing a musical score. There are some beautiful evocative sentences that take your breath away, followed by tracks of jarring notes putting your teeth on edge. Her characters are very easy to identify with. Both Maggie and Mike made me warm to them and seeing how they helped each other in the healing process was beautifully portrayed. However, the psychopathic hunter; Dane, was just a tad too much. Yes, we wanted to know how deranged and damaged he was, but this was taken too far and this extremely nasty character somehow detracted from this otherwise beautiful story, full of music. Congratulations Helaime Mario, I will definitely be adding you to my list of top authors and look forward to reading more from you in the not too distant future.
Treebeard

Maggie O'Shea has lost her best friend and then her husband, her godson is missing and she has retreated from her world of music in her grief. Then a CIA agent arrives with a photograph of a man she has long thought dead in the presence of her dead best friend's husband. Can the father of her son be alive and tied into the death of her friend and missing godson. As she is drawn more and more into finding her godson and her long lost love she begins to feel herself become more engaged with life and she knows she will not stop until she has found her godson and the man she has long thought dead. The retired military man who has been sent to find both does not want her help but she refuses to leave Paris and as they work together she realizes she is drawn to this quiet man who has retreated from his own life. Can they find her godson before it's to late. Will she be able to find her music again thru all she has endured. I could not put this book down once I started to read as I just kept thinking Maggie O'Shea you will find your music again.

Maggie is a concert pianist whose music has left her after the death of her husband and the disappearance of her godson. While she struggles with these, she is approached by someone who wants her to help solve both cases. Is everything really as it seems?

This book sucked me in almost from the beginning, and it was very hard to put it down before I finished reading. There's music, of course -- lots and lots of music!, art, a mystery, a far-less-than-helpless female main character, a dog you can't help but love, and a touch of romance as well ... a little something for everyone. I will definitely be on the lookout for future books by Ms. Mario.

pub date 01/31/15

A captivating DEBUT novel featuring a quirky pianist who is recruited by the CIA to help locate an international financier. What's her connection? Her best friend is his deceased wife, her godson is being held, and her presumed-dead husband is very much alive. Her t-shirts say Etude, Brute? and Pianists Duet Better and Handel With Care, but there's not much fun as the team searches from the US through Italy and England. This story will keep you on the edge of your seat, and when you turn the last page, you'll be yearning for more.

The Lost Concerto tries to be many things without settling into the rules of any specific genre. It’s a mix between thriller, mystery, literary, and women’s fiction, among others. Some of these elements worked better for me while others, specifically the mystery, did not. The way the mystery is put together, the reader never has the information necessary to understand it until the reveal, and that’s with spending time in the points of view (POVs) of the characters who are driven by this information but choose not to mention it. This is a pet peeve of mine, and why I don’t tend to read mysteries, but still I kept reading this one despite the frustration.

Why I did is complicated, and has a lot to do with that mix of elements I mentioned. There are many POV characters beyond the two I dubbed the main characters, Maggie O’Shea and Michael Beckett. Maggie definitely holds that role, but the rest include a Treasury Department agent, a hired assassin, a terror financier, and many more. Though Shiloh never got the POV, the war veteran golden retriever plays a big role too.

The writing is beautiful and lyrical with description to enthrall all the senses. The sense of music as a background is strong and powerful. At the same time, the writing is not obtrusive, allowing the story about good people trying to the right thing even when it puts them in danger and the length bad people will go to protect themselves to take the main stage. If that sounds like a simple plot, don’t worry. It’s much more complicated than that because you learn how the good folks don’t always take the good path, and what drove the bad people to make those choices that sets them on the other side not just of the law but of all that is good. They are complex, obsessive, and sometimes even self-aware.

Nor does the book take itself too seriously, peppered as it is with music jokes and puns conveyed on whatever t-shirt Maggie happens to be wearing.

She is a concert pianist who cannot play in the face of the murder of her best friend quickly followed by the death of her beloved husband when he’d gone on a search for her friend’s missing son. Though labeled an accident, something about the whole thing doesn’t sit well and given the chance to do something instead of fade into darkness, Maggie jumps on board.

Maggie’s story is not the only one with roots in tragedy. There is a strong thread running through out of surviving and recovery carried on in Michael Beckett and his dog as well. Both suffer from post-traumatic syndrome having been injured on the front in Afghanistan. Nor are they the only ones, either. The story looks at coming back from the darkness and fulfilling promises made to lost loves.

It’s powerful and evocative. It’s also brutal and graphic at times, sparing the reader nothing. Other times, it’s funny and poignant. And throughout the whole winds a love of music that is tangible.

The Lost Concerto might not follow genre conventions, it might play games with what the reader knows that are author intrusion in keeping secrets even when we’re in the POV of characters who know, but the story itself is one to keep you reading, the flaws minor in comparison to the power of deep characters and complex situations.

P.S. I received this title from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.