Phantom Madness

Known only as Erik Costanzi to the patrons of the Teatro dell'Opera and immersed in the world of music, the Phantom of the Opera believes his demons have been laid to rest. When a fire breaks out in the Teatro, Erik is thought to have died in the blaze. But he wakes-without memory and without an identity-in the arms of his former lover, Lucianna Fiortino.

Given a chance to keep Erik to herself, Lucianna invents a fairy-tale past for him. She has him take the name of her dead husband, not realizing that she thus condemns him to live a fiction that spirals further and further out of control. Has Erik lost everything, including himself?

Yet Meg cannot accept that her husband has died. She knows that the stranger who watches in the wings and sends her roses must be Erik. But someone else watches over both Erik and Meg, waiting for another chance at revenge.

Only the Phantom can save them.

Book III in the Phoenix of the Opera series, The Phantom's Opera continues the story begun in The Phoenix of the Opera and Out of the Darkness: The Phantom's Journey.

Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, has escaped the hangman's noose and fled Paris for Italy with his bride, Meg. But the Phantom cannot so easily escape the demons that haunt him. Self-doubt and despair lead to a quarrel with Meg, who injures herself running from him. Despite his tender ministrations, when she comes to, Meg screams upon seeing the Phantom unmasked. Erik flees. The Phantom's journey takes him back to the sordid carnival-and the trauma-of his youth, to the luxurious home of the cruel and decadent nobleman Don Ponzio and his desperate and beautiful wife Lucianna, and to a battle between the man and the monster within. While Erik finds himself trapped in a complex weave of seduction and violence, Meg, recovered from her injury, is beset by suitors, one of whom is the handsome yet ominous Giovanni. But Meg longs for one man only. Will she draw Erik back to her? Can she inspire the Phantom to love himself and her enough to create a life together? Will Giovanni prove an obstacle to their happiness? Out of the Darkness continues the story of Sadie Montgomery's dark hero, his beloved Meg, and their stalwart friends Raoul and Christine.