The Mozart Code
World War II stories have their Nazi villains and gripping revelations of terror and heroism, but with victory for the Allies comes another set of problems entirely: how to deal with scheming Russians, pillaged art works, and the inevitable conflict that comes from divvying up the spoils. Enter Simon Barre, the unwanted stepson of a nasty British aristocrat who wishes to cheat Simon of his estate by insisting he marry someone of equal station, and Lady Sophia Villiers, whose vacuous parents try to force her into a status marriage. The loyal friends decide on a “marriage of convenience” to outwit their overbearing parents. The problem is that they can’t admit they are in love with each other and so pretend the marriage is nothing but a piece of paper.
After the war, they wind up in Vienna, Austria, in 1947, on separate missions. Simon is on the hunt for members of a notorious spy ring called Eternity, while Sophia has adopted the code name ‘Starling’ and is searching for Mozart’s death mask. Mozart’s music has a special draw for Sophia, a talented pianist, but when she’s called to Prague in her quest, she finds she is a pawn in a game of life and death. It’s up to Simon, an avid chess player, to discover where her allegiance lies.
McMillan is a masterful prose stylist and diligent researcher, but I’m afraid I didn’t find the storytelling particularly compelling. The main characters’ motives are often murky and the pacing tedious, especially in the first half of the book. In addition, the convoluted plot involved so many different characters, all up to no good, that it was difficult (for me, at any rate) to become emotionally involved in the story.
