1636: The Devil's Opera

1636: The Devil's Opera is a stand-alone novel in the alternate history 1632 series with minor character overlaps. Published on October 1, 2013 the book is written by David Carrico and Eric Flint. It is a semi-detective novel set in a growing industrial city that is a continuation of two series of stories that David Carrico had originally written in the electronic versions of the Grantville Gazette that were serialized over several issues and later compiled into the compilation 1635: Music and Murder, one series involving criminal investigation and crime fighting and other series involving music and social revolution.

Contents

• Bfrh 29 eric flint david carrico on 1636 the devil s opera
• Literary significance and reception
• References

The novel starts with the discovery of a body floating in a river by a new character, but things are not as simple as they first appear to be since more unsolved crimes begin to occur. Later, detectives Byron Chieske and Gotthilf Hoch of the recently formed Magdeburg Police, formerly the city watch, are called in to investigate. These two characters were first introduced in the story "None So Blind" that was published in the tenth issue of the Grantville Gazette. Some of the criminals involved in this novel were also developed in these serials.

The other main storyline involves musician Marla Linder and her husband Franz Sylwester and how they used music to motivate the common people to resist the conservative forces that were trying to take over and return the world to medieval way of doing things after the emperor was incapacitated during battle. These two characters were first introduced in the story "The Sound of Music" that was published in the third issue of the Grantville Gazette.