Mazurka [Kindle Edition]

Aaron Paul Lazar (Author)

Book Description

When Siegfried receives a puzzling invitation to visit an ailing relative in Germany on the eve of Gus and Camille’s wedding, their honeymoon plans change. Siegfried -- Gus’s socially challenged brother-in-law -- can’t travel alone, so they gather the gentle giant under their wings and fly to Paris. After luscious hours in the city of lights, a twist of fate propels them into a deadly web of neo-Nazis. A bloody brawl on the Champs Élysées thrusts Siegfried and Gus into the news, where a flawed report casts Siegfried as the Nazi leader’s murderer, sealing his death warrant. While Siegfried recovers in a Parisian hospital, Nazi terrorists stalk Gus and Camille. Hunted and left for dead in the underground Parisian Catacombs among millions of Frenchmen’s bones, they barely escape. Siegfried is moved to safety at his aunt’s in Denkendorf, where he learns a shocking family secret about Chopin’s steamy past. The calm is soon shattered, when the threesome is plunged into a cat-and-mouse game where the stakes are lethal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Lazar delivers a masterful display of heartfelt emotions, need, and compassion. That he wraps this present in a thrilling, mysterious package for us just makes it all the more enjoyable. --Thomas Fortenberry, Literary Critic

About the Author

After writing in the early morning hours, Aaron Lazar works as an electrophotographic engineer in Rochester, New York. Additional passions include vegetable, fruit, and flower gardening; preparing large family feasts; photographing his family, gardens, and the breathtakingly beautiful Genesee Valley; cross-country skiing across the rolling hills; playing a distinctly amateur level of piano, and spending "time" with the French Impressionists whenever possible. Mr. Lazar resides in Upstate New York with his wife, three daughters, two grandsons, mother-in-law, dog, and four cats. Although he adored raising his three delightful daughters, Aaron finds grandfathering his "two little buddies" to be one of the finest experiences of his life.

Product Details

• File Size: 411 KB
• Print Length: 234 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1606191608
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Twilight Times Books (September 15, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0042RULSS
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #587,667 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A wild trip to Europe with Gustave, Camille and Siegfried March 6, 2012

By DC from WA USA

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The thrills start from the first page. Love Lazar's ability to show and not just tell. This author's gift places the reader right in the midst of the plot and not just a eavesdropper. I have read previous books from this series but other than insight into the characters, it is not absolutely necessary. I will say that when you read just one, you will want to return to read all the others in his LeGarde series as well as Sam Moore mysteries and the Tall Pines Mysteries.

The descriptions of the sites, sounds, smells and flavors of their trip is magnificent as well as history and the secrets it keeps.

I did miss the hometown feel of this book but just like when you take a vacation, you miss those that did not come with you and you look forward to coming home.

This is an author that those who have not read his writings are truly missing out on wonderful stories. This book is just as good and many times better than ones that I have paid 4 times as much.

Thank you again Mr. Lazar. I hope you are blessed in turn from the blessings you have shared with us readers of your magical writings.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad book. June 1, 2011

By G. Jones

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I first read Lazar's Cry of the Loon for free, so I thought I'd buy one to read. It's an interesting story, but most of all I enjoy Lazar's word pictures; he'a great descriptive writer. Though, sometimes the reader (and I fear Lazar, as well) get lost in the descriptive prose. The plot of this book was interesting, and had a couple of decent plot twists, and a satisfactory (if not somewhat drawn out) ending. I'll likely read another.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Music, mystery and Paris March 16, 2011

By S. Deeth TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I'd heard of Aaron Lazar's Gus LeGarde mysteries, but hadn't read any yet, so I had slightly mixed feelings when I got the chance to read the fourth in the series before trying the others. On the one hand, Mazurka starts in Paris, the location of some especially fond memories for me, so that was certainly an attraction. But on the other hand I was nervous that I might feel I was playing catch-up, chasing after characters that other readers already knew and loved.

I needn't have worried. Gus, Camille and Siegfried rapidly became real to me, as did the scenes they inhabited. Soon I was smelling and hearing Paris all around me as I sank into the story...

And tasting it!

The author's ability to evoke the flavor of a city, and a meal, is truly amazing. I frequently felt like I was sitting at the next table in a street-café. I could feel the texture as a French loaf was torn apart, and taste the crumbs on my tongue. I could see the flowers and hear the birds. And in a heartbeat, I was part of the confusion and fear all around as events transformed LeGarde's beautiful haven to a terror zone.

The author's wide-ranging skills are equally apparent in love scenes, in evocative passages filled with memories, and in death-defying action. His protagonists are at once believable and just plain nice, leaving the reader pleased to have met them and eager to spend more time in their company. And the enemy in Mazurka is one that has indeed been on the rise, in Europe and beyond. Lazar's handling of local history and the global nature of evil was very nicely done.

Then of course, there's that delightful thread of music through the tale, as befits the book's title, and a fascinating depiction of the world of long ago.

This was truly an enjoyable book, and an excellent introduction to a series that I'll hope to read more of. Many thanks for the invitation and the opportunity Mr. Lazar.

More About the Author

Aaron Paul Lazar wasn't always a mystery writer. It wasn't until eight members of his family and friends died within five years that the urge to write became overwhelming. "When my father died, I lost it. I needed an outlet, and writing provided the kind of solace I couldn't find elsewhere."

Lazar created the Gus LeGarde mystery series, with the founding novel, DOUBLE FORTÉ (2004), a chilling winter mystery set in the Genesee Valley of upstate New York. Like Lazar's father, protagonist Gus LeGarde is a classical music professor. Gus, a grandfather, gardener, chef, and nature lover, plays Chopin etudes to feed his soul and thinks of himself as a "Renaissance man caught in the 21st century."

The creation of the series lent Lazar the comfort he sought, yet in the process, a new passion was unleashed. Obsessed with his parallel universe, he now lives, breathes, and dreams about his characters, and has written ten LeGarde mysteries in eight years. (UPSTAGED - 2005; TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON - 2007 Twilight Times Books; MAZURKA - 2009 Twilight Times Books, FIRESONG - 2011, with more to come.) The author is currently working on his sixteenth novel.

One day while rototilling his gardens, Lazar unearthed a green cat's eye marble, which prompted the new paranormal mystery series featuring Sam Moore, retired country doctor and passionate gardener. The green marble, a powerful talisman, connects all three of the books in the series, whisking Sam back in time to uncover his brother's dreadful fate fifty years earlier. (HEALEY'S CAVE, 2010; TERROR COMES KNOCKING, 2011; FOR KEEPS, 2012) Lazar intends to continue both series.

Lazar's books feature breathless chase scenes, nasty villains, and taut suspense, but are also intensely human stories, replete with kids, dogs, horses, food, romance, and humor. The author calls them, "country mysteries," although reviewers have dubbed them "literary mysteries."

"It seems as though every image ever impressed upon my brain finds its way into my work. Whether it's the light dancing through stained-glass windows in a Parisian chapel, curly slate-green lichen covering a boulder at the edge of a pond in Maine, or hoarfrost dangling from a cherry tree branch in mid-winter, these images burrow into my memory cells. In time they bubble back, persistently itching, until they are poured out on the page."

In 2009, Kodak gave him up for grabs, and during the year off before he landed in his coveted new job with KB America, he had time to explore and reconnect with his environment. Little did he know that several trips to the Adirondack Mountains would reawaken his passion for that part of the country. Two new books were written in that timeframe, starting yet another mystery series, Tall Pines Mysteries. The first two books in the series are due out in the late 2011 early 2012 timeframe. Watch for FOR THE BIRDS and ESSENTIALLY YOURS, coming soon.

The author lives on a ridge overlooking the Genesee Valley in upstate New York with his wife, mother-in-law, two dogs, and cat. He finds grandfathering one of the most precious and important times of life, and spends as much time as possible with Julian, Gordon, and Isabella.

Lazar maintains several websites and blogs, was the Gather Saturday Writing Essential host for three years, writes his monthly "Seedlings" columns for the Voice in the Dark literary journal and the Future Mystery Anthology Magazine. He has been published in Absolute Write as well as The Great Mystery and Suspense Magazine. See excerpts and reviews here:

www.lazarbooks.com
www.murderby4.blogspot.com
www.aplazar.gather.com
www.aaronlazar.blogspot.com

Contact him at [e-mail].

Twilight Times Books by Kindle bestselling author, Aaron Lazar:

LEGARDE MYSTERIES

DOUBLE FORTÉ (FEB 2012, author's preferred edition)
UPSTAGED (AUG, 2012 author's preferred edition, eBook and print)
TREMOLO: CRY OF THE LOON (2007, AUDIO BOOK 2011)
MAZURKA (2009, AUDIO BOOK 2012)
FIRESONG (JULY 2011, AUDIO BOOK 2012)
DON'T LET THE WIND CATCH YOU (JULY 2012)

MOORE MYSTERIES

HEALEY'S CAVE (2010, AUDIO BOOK 2011)
TERROR COMES KNOCKING (FEB 2012, AUDIO BOOK 2012)
FOR KEEPS (JULY 2012)

TALL PINES MYSTERIES

FOR THE BIRDS (NOV 2011, AUDIO BOOK, 2012)
ESSENTIALLY YOURS (MARCH 2012)
SANCTUARY (2012)

WINNER 2012 EPIC Book Awards, BEST Paranormal * FINALIST 2011 FOREWORD BOOK AWARDS * WINNER 2011 Eric Hoffer BEST Book, COMMERCIAL FICTION * FINALIST EPIC Awards 2011* GRAND PRIZE FINALIST Eric Hoffer Book Award 2011 * 2X FINALIST Global eBook Awards 2011 * Preditors & Editors Readers Choice Award - 2nd place 2011* Winner of Carolyn Howard Johnsons' 9th Annual Noble (Not Nobel!) Prize for Literature 2011 * Finalist Allbooks Editors Choice Awards 2011 * Preditors&Editors Top 10 Finalist * Yolanda Renee's Top Ten Books 2008 * MYSHELF Top Ten Reads 2008 * Writers' Digest Top 101 Website Award 2009-2011