A Musical Mystery Tour
Left: Book cover of Murder Mystery, Please. Right: A scene from Tosca.
I love reading detective stories, which to me can be like crosswords in novel form. In the good old days when I travelled a lot for work, they were the perfect books to take on the road. But now that I, together with everyone else, am stuck at home, I am still perfectly happy to get lost in a good mystery story, to pit my wits against the detective, to try to solve the clues. There are a number of genres within the broad scope of the detective story that I particularly like: historical mysteries, British mysteries and above all musical mysteries. Sometimes of course all three appear in one book and that gets me totally hooked.
So, I thought that perhaps I would jot down a list of some of my favourite detective fiction that has a musical theme and, also provide a little commentary. As in real life, music can come in many forms, so I have decided to restrict myself to Classical music and then to divide the list into two halves: instrumental and vocal. This is certainly not a complete list, being only the ones that I have actually read and enjoyed. Please feel free to contact me with ideas for ones that I have missed out.
I hope that if you like this type of book, some of these will help wile away the hours until we can return to a more gregarious way of life, even travel, and give or attend concerts.
Instrumental
A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George
Part of the much-loved Inspector Linley Series. It has been televised in Series 3 of the series from the BBC.
(The) Blue Harpsichord by Francis Steegmuller
The author was a noted scholar of French history and literature, but he also published lighter works under various pseudonyms; in this case David Keith. Elegantly written, as one would expect!
Chords and Discords by Roz Southey
This is the first of five historical mysteries set in Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1730s. The sleuth is a harpsichordist and composer. The author is also a musician who has written an excellent book about the Newcastle composer and organist Charles Avison. She has a terrific flair for period atmosphere and her knowledge of both the music scene and the city itself is exemplary.
Death in A major by Sarah Fox
One of three by this Canadian author. The other two are Dead Ringer and Deadly Overtures.
Funeral Music by Morag Joss
This is the first of three excellent books. The sleuth is a cellist who lives in Bath. The other two are Fearful Symmetry and Fruitful Bodies. How I wish that she had continued the series after such a terrific start.
Murder Duet: A Musical Case by Batya Gur
A fine Israeli mystery series of which this is the fourth. Brahms and Vivaldi are the featured composers. A very good read indeed.
Mayhem in B flat by Elliot Paul
A classic first published in 1940.
Murder in C major by Sara Hoskinson Frommer
The first of several musical, ‘cozy’ mysteries by this Indiana based author. After reading this, Schubert’s Great C major Symphony will never be quite the same again. Others in the series include: Murder and Sullivan and The Vanishing Violinist.
Murder in E minor by Robert Goldsborough
This is a continuation of the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout.
Murder in G major by Alexia Georgia
This is the first of five set in Ireland written in her spare time by a physician. The heroine is an African-American music teacher called Gethsemane Brown. Excellent in every way.
Murder, Maestro Please by Delano Ames
This is a classic! Originally published in 1952, it is part of a superb series by this very witty writer. Ames was American by birth, but he worked for British Intelligence during WWII before retiring to Spain. I can recommend every one of his very clever and amusing books
The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists by Barbara Wilson
A fine mystery set in Venice. This is last of a set of four. The author is a LAMBDA award winner.
Vocal and Opera
A Cadenza for Caruso by Barbara Paul
One of a set of three fine operatic tales of mystery and mayhem. The other two are Prima Donna at Large & A Chorus of Detectives.
Australia’s Son by Garrick Jones
Garrick is a friend of long-standing. We gave concerts in London together in the 1970s before he returned to Australia. After he retired from his singing and teaching career, he turned to writing with well-deserved success. This work is set in Sydney in 1902 and Garrick has a great flair for the era. Of course, the musical side of things is handled perfectly and there is a touching romance between the hero, who is the star of the opera, and the policeman sent to guard him.
Dear Mr. Mozart by Bernard Bastable
Bernard Bastable is a pen name of Robert Barnard (see below). Pure fantasy but most enjoyable. It imagines that Mozart didn’t die in 1791 and ended up in London at the end of the Regency. Good fun. There is a companion work called Too Many Notes Mr. Mozart. As in the books published under his own name, the writing is top quality.
Death of a Baritone by Karen Sturges
Set on Long Island during the rehearsals for Così fan tutte. There is a companion book called Death of a Pooh Bah where bad things happen during the Mikado.
Death on the High Cs by Robert Barnard
A wonderful, witty book written by a master of the genre, here using is real name. An Australian mezzo gets electrocuted in Rigoletto. Anything by this writer is always excellent but this one is extra delightful because of its operatic theme. This is on my top ten list.
Diva Detective by Rosemary Boyd
An American diva is on a deadly tour of Germany. Once again, Così fan tutte is the opera where bad things happen!
False Notes by C. Q. Yarbro
This one is rather close to home. The crime happens at the San Francisco Opera and the author lives in Berkeley, like me!
Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler
This is the first of a terrific series about the ’Peculiar Crimes Unit’ in London. Mr. Fowler is a wonderful writer and he is a great lover of London’s history, be it lost pubs, underground rivers or in this case, old theatres. Orpheus in the Underworld is the opera in this one. I’m a great fan of the whole series, which is very funny, clever and informative about the history of Britain’s endlessly fascinating capital city.
Funeral for Figaro by Ellis Peters
A fine mystery by a writer who is best known for her extremely successful Cadfael series that is also on TV starring Derek Jacobi. Superbly crafted, as one would expect.
Murder and MendelsSohn by Kerry Greenwood
I am a fan of everything Kerry Greenwood writes, especially the series featuring Miss Fisher and Corinna Chapman. This book is the most recent of the former and, as far as I know, it has not been adapted for TV. Ms. Greenwood is a music lover as one can tell in this super book. Rehearsals of Elijah have never been this eventful!
Murder at La Fenice by Deon Leon
Donna Leon is a tremendous lover of Baroque Opera as well as a writer who captures the atmosphere of Venice perfectly. I have met her on several times at the Göttingen Handel Festival and always found her delightful company.
I am not sure that I approve when a conductor gets poisoned, even one as unpleasant as this one.
Some of this series also features an opera singer, Flavia Petrelli.
(The) Opera house Murders by Dan Billany
A classic. The writer was captured by the German in 1942 and sent to a camp in Italy. In the autumn of 1943, he and a couple friends escaped but it seems they died in the Appenines before they could reach the Allies and safety. In the USA, this book was published under the title It Takes a Thief.
Ransom at the Opera by Fred Hunter
This is part of a series set in Chicago. Carmen is the opera this time. Fred Hunter’s other series is a way-over-the-top set of gay mysteries that are wickedly funny.
Ruddy Gore by Kerry Greenwood
Another of the Miss Fisher books which as the title punningly suggests is about Gilbert and Sullivan. It is also No. 6 in the first season of the televised series.
Swan Song by Edmund Crispin
One of the giants of the English classic mystery writers, Bruce Montgomory, to give him his real name, was also a very successful composer. He wrote music for over forty films, including many of the supremely silly ‘Carry On’ series that were all rage in the 1950s onwards.
Die Meistersinger is the opera in this book, which is typical of the author’s clever, witty, and very literate style.
The Devil in Music by Kate Ross
Kate Ross only lived to write four novels before she succumbed to breast cancer at the early age of 41. Aside from being a fine writer she was also a successful trial lawyer in the Boston area. Like the incomparable C. S. Harris, she has a terrific at creating the atmosphere of the Regency period.
The Figaro Murders by Lara Lebow
Unlike other Figaro books, this one is an historical mystery and it’s Da Ponte who is the sleuth.
The Opera House Murders by David Hanna
The diva’s husband is murdered by the stage door of a fancy opera company. But will he be the only victim??
Vienna Blood by Frank Tallis
This magnificent series set in Vienna at the time of Freud and Mahler, is only tangentially about music. However, both the detective and his friend Max Lieberman, a pupil of Freud, spend many evenings singing lieder. Many of the events described in the books really happened, such as a concert when Mahler was disturbed at the start by the noisy arrival of the anti-Semitic Mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger. This must be one of the finest series of historical mysteries to have appeared in decades. I am happy to say that the BBC has begun to televise them.
BEWARE. Frank Tallis’ books are usually retitled in the USA for reasons that escape me. I have been caught buying what I thought was a new title, only to find that it was a book I’d already enjoyed in the UK renamed for the American market. Whoever does this should, in my view, become the victim in someone’s upcoming book.
Vienna in Violet by David W. Frank
Schubert is suspected of murdering a countess. A great read with lots of period atmosphere.