Review of The Adagio: A Mystery (Paperback)

Alan K. Austin has created a masterpiece. "The Adagio" is a well-written piece that takes the reader for a ride of a lifetime. A simple tale of a record containing a single misplaced note, a scream, weaves into an astonishing story of a man determined to prove his innocence.

Jack Duncan begins a casual affair with no clue of the drama that would result from it. With murder victims falling all around him, he must prove his innocence to the authorities and to his self.

This is a story that you will remember long after reading. It starts out with a bang. You may find yourself drifting off slightly in the middle, but hang in there because the ending brings everything together in a nice tidy bow, leaving you satisfied. This is an entertaining piece and I look forward to seeing more work from this talented writer.



Product Description
Jack Duncan likes women-even married ones. An amateur actor in 1960s Omaha, Nebraska, he's started a steamy affair with his married costar, Louise Thompson. But when her husband discovers them in flagrante dilecto, Robert Thompson takes a peculiar revenge on Duncan, giving him his prized recording of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.

While listening to the record, Duncan is disconcerted by a scream he hears embedded in the climactic chord. And when he discovers the bodies of Louise and Robert, he knows instantly that their murders and the eerie recording must somehow be connected.

Duncan is suspected of killing the couple and becomes both the pursued and pursuer as he flees to New York City, beginning a hellish four-year mission to discover the source of the scream. He hides among derelicts near Shea Stadium, prowls Carnegie Hall where the Adagio was recorded, and learns of a strange, reclusive man who once lived in Carnegie's tower. Hunted by the law and his own past, Duncan has one chance to prove his innocence-if only he can stop the scream from echoing in his brain.

Lush with the language and attitude of the 1960s and 1970s, The Adagio is a gritty, hardboiled detective novel that will haunt you long after the last page is turned.

About the Author
For thirty years, Alan K. Austin has reported for PBS, Frontline, Nova, and CBS affiliates in Topeka, Kansas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. His documentaries have won ten national Emmys, Peabodies, Dupont-Columbia, and Sigma Delta Chi awards. Austin recently tracked down his junior-high-school flame, and they currently live in Rogers, Arkansas.

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