by Morag Joss
First published 2005
Sara Selkirk plays cello in Bath, a city known more for its architecture than its music scene. Her quiet life gets disrupted when a Czech composer arrives with his student to create an opera for a local company. Sara finds the composer insufferably attractive and doubts his protégée will produce anything worthwhile. Then someone starts killing people connected to the production. Sara becomes involved in the investigation through her complicated relationship with a married police officer who shares her love of music. When the second victim turns out to be someone she knows personally, Sara becomes convinced the murders are linked. She realizes the killer has created a deadly pattern, like a musical composition. Sara must decode this murderous melody before she becomes the next victim.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-detective, complicated-relationships
Setting: Bath
Period: Contemporary
396 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Dell