Concerto

By Robert S. Field

On Charlie Tyndale’s family tree Are branches bearing, he discovers, Ancestors of the landed gentryIncluding incestuous lovers;An intrepid adventurer too,With an eye for a collectible,And there’s a murdered musician whoIn life was all too corruptible.Was his killer a spurned lover, orA rival claimant to the estate, Or treasure-seekers settling a score,Or all, in a brutal syndicate? And through all a Concerto’s movements endure; To Charlie’s ancestral tale, the overture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Conrad Press
• Release date: Oct 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9781839786488

Book preview

Prologue

The writer stares at keyboard and screen,

Aghast at the edificial block

Which dims with shadows every scene

And stuffs up the mind with choking flock.

No matter how loud the novel’s din,

It is muffled by impediment...

That of doubt either how to begin,

Or how to cast it with the intent

Of drawing characters rich and bright

To charm its readers with each turned page,

Plunge them deeply into whipped delight,

And release them a while from life’s cage.

Then in an instant the block is razed and falls,

And the writer hears narrative’s plaintive calls.

So now, and before the curtain’s rise,

The scenery unveiled must be drawn:

First of all, then, to periodize,

The twentieth century’s first dawn

Is but twelve years away and in sight

When this story opens in England,

In summer’s early evening light.

It is moved forth by the writer’s hand

Through seasons and years, then made to rest.

The curtain falls for an interlude

Of untold decades, times unaddressed,

To rise at last, this tale continued,

In twenty nineteen, then to run to the end

Its yarn-spinning word-stricken writer has penned.

Part One: In Olden Days

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four