The Mussorgsky Riddle by Darin KennedyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I picked up this book due to it using the suite, Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modeste Mussorgsky as a framework for the story. One of my teachers in junior high taught a section on Mussorgsky using the same music suite.
Each movement of the suite was inspired by a series of paintings done by Viktor Hartmann. The teacher told a unique story about each painting that related the visual work with the music written by Mussorgsky. As an example, the fourth movement is entitled "Cattle". The movement features a steady deep bass and percussion beat that mirrors the imagined feet of the ox pulling a cart. The music crescendos just as the oxcart reaches the center of the painting with a bit of a crash before slowly fading as the oxcart goes off into the distance.
The teacher suggested that the crescendo as the oxcart reaches the middle of the painting coincided with the oxcart running over the legs of the man that was sitting against a hut by the side of the road. I guess he should have pulled in those legs.
So now Darin Kennedy decided to use the same musical work as the basis for his book. In this case, an abused boy is experiencing episodes where he travels into an imaginary world described by Hartmann's and Mussorgsky's works. An investigator and spiritually "sensitive" person is hired to help solve the riddle of the boy's episodes. The story was interesting, but a little muddled.
It had a detective style murder mystery. It had some sort of mystical world traveling. It had some sort of spirituality. It tried to have some sort of "science". It has witchcraft.
But all of the elements are rather loosely connected. The resolution was decidedly unfulfilling. The protagonist was successful largely because she emoted enough.
If you have an attachment to any of the features above, then you will have a pleasant time with this book.
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