Playing with Fire: A Novel by Tess Gerritsen MYS Ger

I have read most of Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles novels.  This one is a stand-alone novel and it was quite different than her others - and I loved it.  The story moves between two periods of time.  It begins in modern times when Julia Ansdell goes shopping after performing at a music festival in Rome.  She has bought something for her husband and her three-year-old daughter Lilly but is still looking for her own souvenir.  When she wanders into an antique store she finds the perfect momento for herself.  It is music for a waltz called the Incendio Waltz.  She reads the notes and can hear them in her head.  She knows it is complex but she is eager to learn how to play it when she returns home.

The first time she tries to play it at home she is interrupted when Lilly comes up to her and she has blood all over her hands.  The cat is dead and Julia knows that Lilly did it but her husband insists that it was an accident. When Julia begins to believe that Lilly is trying to hurt her she begins to connect it to the times that she was playing the waltz - and thus begins many tests and visits to various doctors.

The other part of the book takes place in Europe.  The Nazi's are beginning to ramp up their persecution of the Jews.  Lorenzo is a young man who is only interested in his violin and looking forward to entering a music competition.  He planned to do a solo but finds himself playing a duet with a young woman named Laura.  They make beautiful music together and of course they fall in love.  Lorenzo is Jewish and Laura is not.  You can tell this isn't going to end well!

Julia is convinced that she needs to find out more about the waltz to be able to help her daughter and she begins to research where it came from and finds herself in a dangerous situation.

I loved it!

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