Book review: "Playing With Fire" by Tess Gerritsen

I saw this book on a list of suspenseful novels put out by Buzzfeed (the master of all of the lists!). It sounded weird and interesting so I picked it up from ye olde library.

Julia is a violinist who stumbles across an old piece of music when she is on tour in Italy. She brings it home and when she begins to practice the mysterious music strange and scary things start to happen. Her life beings to crumble and she doesn't know who she can or can't trust but she knows that somehow this music is to blame.

In flashbacks we learn about Lorenzo and his family who live in Venice right before the start of World War II. He's a talented violinist and when he is paired up with a family friend's granddaughter for a duet, he is cranky about it. But then it turns out that she's beautiful and smart and sassy and suddenly he's okay with it. It also help's that though she isn't as good of a cellist and Lorenzo is a violinist she works hard and they make great music together (literally and metaphorically). But since Lorenzo and his family are Jewish, and it's Italy and it's the 1940s you know the twist that this is going to take.

So the book alternates between the story of Julia, Lorenzo and the backstory of this mysterious and haunting music. Julia's struggle for her sanity leads her back to Italy to see what she can find out about Lorenzo and this music and it turns out to be a dangerous choice!

Despite the heavy sounding subject matter the book moves quickly and flows well. I honestly didn't know if Julia was losing her damn mind or if there was some kind of conspiracy happening.I give it a solid 3.4 out of 5 stars. Not life changing but a good, quick read!