helaine mario

"The gorgeously enigmatic Shadow Music is pure Helaine Mario.
Gripping, intense and lyrical, this is a heartbreaking journey wrapped in a page-turning mystery."
   —Author Hank Phillippi Ryan

Thank you for visiting my beautiful website, and welcome. I have written the suspense novels that I wanted to read—Firebird, The Lost Concerto (view the trailer!), Dark Rhapsody, and Shadow Music (IPPY winner!). I write not about what I know, but about what I love—music, dance, art, the performing arts, history, romance, and international suspense.

Intelligent and complex characters deserve intelligent and complex plots. They deserve to be set in beautiful, evocative settings. Classical music sets my stories apart, enriching them with emotion and heart. I am passionate about these suspenseful but character-driven stories and like to say that my books really are "love stories masquerading as thrillers." I want to be a storyteller forever.

Helaine Mario

2021 FOREWORD INDIE GOLD MEDAL — for Mystery
2022 NIEA FIRST PLACE / WINNER — National Indie Excellence Award for Suspense
2022 IPPY GOLD MEDAL — Independent Publishers Award for Suspense / Thriller
2022 FINALIST — International Book Award, Mystery / Suspense

Shadow Music

Maggie O'Shea Suspense Series, Book 3

Shadow Music

"Mario has once again hit all the right notes with Shadow Music, drawing the reader into a landscape of art and music... using a tuning fork of spine-tingling suspense."
   —Sandra Brown, New York Times best-selling author

"[Shadow Music] is simply amazing, atmospheric, and poignant—full of danger suspense and most of all music. In her author's note Helaine Mario tells readers that she wants them to fall into Maggie's story and that is exactly what they'll do, body and soul."
   —Debbie Haupt, The Reading Frenzy

Overcoming loss—Finding the courage to move on—Trying to stay alive

Late in the Cold War, a young woman escapes from Communist Hungary, vanishing into the night with a priceless painting and a baby girl, setting in motion a decades-old secret that will change lives for generations to come.

Many years later, classical pianist Maggie O'Shea is drawn to Cornwall in search of a long-lost Van Gogh and the truth behind her husband's death. A journal from World War II Paris holds many of the answers, but only two people know where the Van Gogh is hidden now—a courageous nun and a man presumed dead.

Set against the backdrop of the international music and art world, Maggie finds herself on a collision course with three dangerous Russians who threaten all she holds dear—including her life and the life of the man she has come to love.

Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 is at the heart of this story that strikes the chords of every human emotion. Past and present converge in this haunting tale of loss, courage, vengeance and love.

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(Note—author royalties will be donated to support reading, music, art, nutrition, and scholarship programs for children and families.)

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