Saturday, June 25, 2016

MURDER MEZZO FORTE, by Donn Taylor


    Professor Preston Barclay seems to have a talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Murder Mezzo Forte, he and Mara Thorn, another faculty member at Overton University, leave a reception to answer Professor Mitra Fortier's summons to her office. Mitra implies that something dire is taking place at the university. Despite the late hour, Preston and Mara cross the campus to Mitra's office--and find her dead.
    Notwithstanding his protests to the contrary, Preston is drawn into the investigation as rumors circulate that he and Mara are responsible for Professor Fortier's death.
    Murder Mezzo Forte is populated with eccentric characters. Preston is plagued with an internal orchestra that provides musical accompaniment in his head wherever he goes. Mara is a former Wiccan, now a Christian, who cannot seem to shake the Wiccan label. Toss into the mix a faculty and board of trustees as individual as they are quirky, stir them up with a corrupt police officer, and you have a hugely entertaining novel. 
    I've been looking forward to this book since reading Donn Taylor’s Rhapsody in Red, which also featured Preston Barclay and Mara Thorn. Murder Mezzo Forte does not disappoint.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and recommend it to all readers who love a tense mystery laced with a humorous point of view.
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