Now available in all local bookstores and online at www.butlerbooks.com
Bless me father for I have sinned...
 James Markert returns with a mysterious and moving novel about Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium. The Requiem Rose began as a screenplay and has evolved into the beginning of a series that will bring the legends and ghosts of Waverly to life, and the history of Louisville to the forefront.
Synopsis:
In 1929, at the height of the tuberculosis epidemic, a patient dies every hour at the Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium, set high upon a wooded hillside in Louisville, Kentucky. Wolfgang Pike is both priest and doctor at the sanatorium, but his medicine can’t cure the sick and his religion can’t bring peace to them—nor to himself. He was a doctor before he was a priest, and in between he met and married the love of his life, Rose, who died tragically on a downtown street. With his childhood dreams of being the next Mozart unfulfilled, his new life revolves around writing the perfect requiem for his late wife. But nothing is perfect enough for Rose’s memory.
When Tad McVain, a seven-fingered mute veteran of the Great War, shows up to die of TB, Wolfgang discovers McVain was once a concert pianist. McVain reluctantly agrees to help Wolfgang finish his requiem. Suddenly they find themselves surrounded by accomplished musicians. Wolfgang sees it as a long-awaited sign from God. Wolfgang and his friendly companion, Nurse Susannah, recruit a choir from the patients and begin a small orchestra. Beautiful music soars over the wooded hillside. Wolfgang is convinced he can heal through music.
But his boss, Dr. Barker, who already thinks Wolfgang is too friendly with the patients and lax on decorum, opposes his every scheme. McVain and two fellow patients escape Waverly for a night of fun at the historic Seelbach Hotel, where they have a timely encounter with Al Capone. The incident brings bad press to the famous sanatorium. Racial barriers are crossed. Tensions rise. The KKK begins an attack that starts with bricks through windows and escalates to murder. Wolfgang is forced to confront the demons of his childhood, where polio left him physically deformed and the memories of his father’s murder left him emotionally scarred. Wolfgang flirts with a forbidden love and is forced to make a decision that could alter the rest of his life. When Wolfgang hears the final and most devastating of McVain’s series of confessions, what he hears is so disturbing that he begins to question his faith in God. Was it fate or coincidence that brought them all together on the wooded hillside?
Praise:
“Waverly Hills Sanatorium is the location of the dramatic unfolding of this page turner. The Requiem Rose is a touching and inspirational story set in a frightening time in our history...the tuberculosis epidemic of the early 1900's. James Markert’s skillfully woven novel is a testament to the human spirit.”
Madeline Abramson
“The Requiem Rose is a must-read for any fan of Louisville history and a true pleasure for lovers of classical music. Through a wealth of fascinating historical detail and a wonderful portrayal of the power of music, Markert spins a richly melodic tale of redemption in the unlikeliest of places and times.”
Louisville Orchestra resident conductor Jason Weinberger
“The Requiem Rose is a story that touches on many human universals ranging from disease, death, loss, and racism to music, love, self-sacrifice and faith. The themes are heartfelt, powerful and cinematic, and the story has the potential to resonate with people on many different levels. It recreates a dark time in American history but it is ultimately a tale of triumph and redemption.”
Peter Gelfan, writer and editor
“It’s not every day you read a novel that you actually find inspiring. It’s definitely not every day that you read an inspirational novel set in a tuberculosis sanatorium. However, it’s not every day novelists like James Markert are born, so at The Editorial Department, we make an effort to appreciate his gifts. Markert believed in the story he wanted to tell, and so did we.”
The Editorial Department, Tucson, Arizona
The movie Amadeus showed us how a requiem possibly brought about the demise of its composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Conversely, in The Requiem Rose, James Markert shows us how music can be a life-saving force; a reason for living. Covering a range of topics, including racism, terminal illness, faith, and forbidden love, Markert has created a page-turner that brings early 20th Century Louisville to life. If you like historical fiction, romances, and music, you’ll love this book.
Jeffrey Reed, Music Director, Orchestra Kentucky
In the first of what is promised as a series, author James Markert does a superb job evoking the period when the Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium was a functioning entity and not a modern-day respite for spooks and scares. It is a somber business there, the last homestead for those condemned to death by this epidemic disease.
Wolfgang Pike, priest and doctor, works bravely within the confines of hourly death but becomes more and more focused on honoring the memory of his late, beloved Rose with a perfect requiem. As with any group assembled from disparate areas, Pike begins to discover the musical talents of the condemned. He begins a quest to arrange a small orchestra and choir to honor Rose, but also to allow the music to heal tortured souls--of which he is one.
With its examinations of faith, the power of confession, and selflessness, The Requiem Rose is a powerful story well-told. The racial tensions of the time help propel the plot, and the sometimes fanciful inferences and descriptions are both entertaining and believable. The foreboding Sanatorium itself is used to great effect, often in the subtlest of ways.
James Markert impressively melds history and spirituality in a gripping page-turner layered equally with hope, dread, love, loss, faith, and fear. This heady mixture--and its successful execution--bodes well for future titles in the series.
Scott Coffman, reviewer, Courier Journal
This year Music Therapy is celebrating its 60th year as a profession in the United States. The main character in James Markert's compelling new novel, The Requiem Rose, was clearly ahead of his time. Using music to help TB patients in dire circumstances, triple threat Wolfgang Pike, (he is a priest, doctor and an amateur composer/pianist) slowly but surely wins over the most skeptical of skeptics in The Waverly Hills Sanatorium and brings music and humanity to the lost, sick and lonely. While Wolfgang is the first character in the novel to recognize music's transformative powers, he is not the last; his enthusiasm is contagious.
The brave doctors and nurses in Markert's novel, which is part history (Waverly Hills was a real place) part drama, part romance and part mystery, risk their lives caring for the highly contagious residents of Waverly Hills, and are a little in need of some healing themselves. Through the creation of a musical ensemble, which includes the most unexpected of participants (the pianist is missing several fingers), love is found, healing begins, and walls come down. The musical collaboration and the completion of Wolfgang's requiem serve as the soundtrack to the characters' journeys through love, loss, redemption and finally, forgiveness.
Music can't cure us, nor does it cure any of the patients dying of TB in Markert's novel. But it does indeed smooth the rough spots, makes life more worthwhile, and opens pathways and doors we didn't even know were there. Congratulations to James Markert on his fine portrayal of imaginary characters in a very real time, and of his understanding of the deep powers of music.
Robin Spielberg, Celebrity Artist Spokesperson, The American Music Therapy Association
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