Andrew Crumey's Blog
August 26, 2023
More reviews
"A book to appeal to readers who enjoy time-travel, mystery, illusion – and no clear-cut answers." Historical Novel Society
"A huge knickerbocker glory of a novel." The Crack
"A deliciously intellectual, ambitious book that explores time, metaphysics, narrative and pretty much everything, all at once." Irish Times
"A huge knickerbocker glory of a novel." The Crack
"A deliciously intellectual, ambitious book that explores time, metaphysics, narrative and pretty much everything, all at once." Irish Times
June 30, 2023
Beethoven's Assassins
"Structured around interlocking stories, the novel is a moving depiction of illness and death – but quantum physics, telepathy and time travel make for cerebral fun as well."
Spectator
"No, Andrew Crumey is not proposing that Beethoven was bumped off by a squad of hitmen. Instead his book turns on spiritualist seances and the theory of relativity, an odd situation involving an early 19th-century Scottish governess and a mysterious death in a mysterious library, a present-day writer’s strained relationship with ageing parents, desire and suspicion at a centre for visiting artists, the reversal of time, the nature of art and the rage for occultism in England a century ago. There are appearances by Katherine Mansfield and others. And yes, there are assassins in there too: hashish users and descendants of everyone’s favourite medieval mystery men, the Knights Templar. There is also a good deal about Beethoven and his music, and the waft throughout of a fictional lost opera."
Literary Review
Spectator
"No, Andrew Crumey is not proposing that Beethoven was bumped off by a squad of hitmen. Instead his book turns on spiritualist seances and the theory of relativity, an odd situation involving an early 19th-century Scottish governess and a mysterious death in a mysterious library, a present-day writer’s strained relationship with ageing parents, desire and suspicion at a centre for visiting artists, the reversal of time, the nature of art and the rage for occultism in England a century ago. There are appearances by Katherine Mansfield and others. And yes, there are assassins in there too: hashish users and descendants of everyone’s favourite medieval mystery men, the Knights Templar. There is also a good deal about Beethoven and his music, and the waft throughout of a fictional lost opera."
Literary Review
June 24, 2023
Reviews
Beethoven's Assassins
"a brilliantly well-informed 200-year history of philosophy, science, music and mysticism, touched with an edge of Da Vinci Code hocus pocus"
Scotsman
"a novel of ideas with all the intrigue and momentum (and occasional red herring) of an absorbing mystery"
Herald
"targets not just the brain but the heart, with a beautiful, vigorous account"
Financial Times
"a brilliantly well-informed 200-year history of philosophy, science, music and mysticism, touched with an edge of Da Vinci Code hocus pocus"
Scotsman
"a novel of ideas with all the intrigue and momentum (and occasional red herring) of an absorbing mystery"
Herald
"targets not just the brain but the heart, with a beautiful, vigorous account"
Financial Times
May 14, 2023
Beethoven's Assassins
Beethoven's Assassins is out now. A relief to see it finished and in print at last!
March 15, 2023
Beethoven's Assassins
My new novel Beethoven's Assassins is coming soon.
