The Bach Musical Mysteries
Award-winning American historical novelist James Y. Bartlett has created this series of fascinating musical mysteries featuring the renowned composer and keyboard virtuoso Johann Sebastian Bach reimagined as an 18th century Sherlock Holmes.
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Each of the fascinating novels in this series is based on an actual event from Bach’s life, yet Bartlett’s imagination adds entirely new dimensions to the great man’s life and work, certain to make every Bach scholar’s head explode!
The Organ Job
Book 1 in the Bach Musical Mystery Series
During a visit to the German city of Kassel to inspect the church’s newly constructed pipe organ, (based on an actual event in his life) Bach, his wife Anna Magdalena and his cousin and personal secretary Elias Bach (who serves as Dr. Watson to Bach’s Sherlock) discover that the pastor of the church may have murdered his young wife. And while they investigate that, Bach learns an old adversary from his past is a guest of the Prince of Hesse, and he plots some musical revenge.
Available in Ebook, Trade Paperback and Audiobook editions
The Coffee Garden
Book 2 in the Bach Musical Mystery Series
In 1736 Leipzig, Cantor Johann Sebastian Bach is feeling oppressed—the city council ignores him, his students are unruly and unappreciative, and the head of the St. Thomas School wants to eliminate the musical curriculum entirely.
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Then, after an ugly incident at a wedding, his prize student, the First Prefect of his four choirs, disappears. As Bach and his secretary/cousin Elias search the city for the boy, it appears that the school head and the mayor may be in league. And Bach’s oldest daughter, Dorte, begins a relationship with Madame von Zeigler, a dissolute aristocratic intellectual in Leipzig.
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All comes to a crashing crescendo with a duel, a discovery of hidden secrets and a drop-in visit by Augustus, the Saxony King, to set things right again. Just in time for Bach’s triumphant summer concert in the Coffee Gardens.
Available in Ebook, Trade Paperback and Audiobook editions
The Song of Asaph
Book 3 in the Bach Musical Mystery Series
An ancient song composed by King David’s chief musician Asaph, discovered by the Teutonic Crusaders to the Holy Land, returned to Germany, then divided into four fragments and hidden to prevent the fearsome powers of God unleashed if the Song is ever heard … This is the legend pursued by the 15-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach and his schoolmate Georg Erdmann in 1700 as they walk the 250 miles from their small town of Ohrdruf to the northern city of Lüneburg to join the St. Michael’s School choir.
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Piecing together the song one fragment at a time, the boys find themselves pursued by the relentless Black Monk, Absalom, who is desperate to protect the Song’s powerful secrets. The Song of Asaph is a page-turning, musical thriller that will appeal to readers of all ages.
Available in Ebook, Trade Paperback and Audiobook editions
