Barbara Lloyd McMichael

“The Brahms Deception”
— Louise Marley
Kensington, 374 pages, $15

Seattle author Louise Marley identifies herself as both a practicing Roman Catholic and an avid yogi, so readers should not be surprised that she is also adept at genre-bending fiction.

 

Formerly a Seattle Opera singer who also served as a section leader in the St. James Cathedral choir and sang in the folk trio Earthwood, Marley now incorporates musical inspiration into her latest historical/speculative/romance novel titled “The Brahms Deception.”

 

Frederica Bannister and Kristian North are two promising musicologists who specialize in Brahms. After undergoing significant mental and physical vetting, they compete for the chance to participate in a new transfer process that has been developed to let researchers go back in time and, without being detected, observe the subject of their study firsthand.

 

Frederica wins the coveted opportunity to study Brahms in his time, but when she fails to return to consciousness in the 21st century after a mental transfer session to the 19th century, Kristian is summoned and asked to submit to the transfer process, too, in order to go back in time and try to retrieve her.

 

Kristian was devastated he hadn’t been picked for the opportunity in the first place, so he jumps at this second chance.

 

When Kristian first gets sent back to the 19th century, he cannot immediately locate Frederica, but he does witness an astonishing thing: Brahms is having a tryst with the widow of composer Robert Schumann, the man who had been Brahms’ mentor.

 

Clara Schumann is a composer herself, and one of the most celebrated pianists of her day. Although she is 14 years older than Brahms, it is clear that the younger man is besotted with her and Kristian can see why: she is captivating.

 

Scholars had always been aware that the Brahms and Clara had remained friends after Schumann’s death, but there had been no evidence of a romantic relationship until now. For classical music aficionados even a hundred years later, this would be juicy news.

 

But now that he’s seen Clara (and been charmed by her himself), Kristian is determined to preserve her reputation for posterity. The couple had kept their relationship discreet, and even a century later he intends to honor their decision.

 

He soon realizes, however, that while his rival Brahms scholar, Frederica, may have disappeared from view she has not gone away. She, too, has discovered this liaison. And it is clear that not only will she refuse to keep the love affair a secret any longer, but she also has violated her transfer agreement by impinging on a scenario that she was only meant to observe.

 

“The Brahms Deception” is a clever melding of time travel, ethics, musicology and romance. Marley describes the landscapes, the costumes, the music, the furnishings, and the food in ravishing – although sometimes redundant – detail. The plot, too, might have been executed more crisply. But I still found this to be a pleasant literary confection for a summer’s day.  

 

The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd McMichael, who writes this column focusing on the books, authors and publishers of the Pacific Northwest. Contact her at bkmonger@nwlink.com.