The Alto Wore Tweed: A Liturgical Mystery (Paperback)

~ Mark Schweizer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

My spirit soared...It’s like Mitford meets Jurassic Park, only without the wisteria and the dinosaurs. -- Marty Hatteberg, The InChoirer, August, 2002

Product Description

Hayden Konig is the police chief in the small Appalachian town of St. Germaine, North Carolina. His part-time job, however, is serving as the choir director and organist at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, but he’s also determined to write the next great hard-boiled mystery novel a la Raymond Chandler — a liturgical mystery novel with no real plot, but enough bad prose to make the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest look like the Oxford University Press spring catalog.

Chief Konig is also lucky enough to be independently wealthy, which is why he decides that his lack of talent in the writing department can easily be remedied, or at least greatly enhanced, by the purchase of Raymond Chandler’s 1939 Underwood typewriter. He is sadly mistaken, but the results are uproarious! Even as Hayden works on his opus, he must deal with other, more pressing, problems — a new priest at St. Barnabas, a Christmas feud between the Rotarians and the Kiwanians and, more importantly, a dead body in the choir loft. It’s a good thing that Hayden keeps a loaded Glock under the organ bench!

As Christmas approaches, the tension (and hilarity) rises to a fever pitch. St. Barnabas is introduced to "The Penguin of Bethlehem" and the town’s Nativity feud turns ugly when the Kiwanian’s bagpiper spooks the Rotarian’s camel. A 12 year old wine snob, hedgehogs, Benny (the world-champion thurifer), church antics, and an episode that is just too good to give away, fill out this mystery that will leave you laughing with every page turn.

Hayden Konig's first mystery — The Alto Wore Tweed. It's not what you expect...it's even funnier.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: St. James Music Press (July 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0972121129
• ISBN-13: 978-0972121125
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #112,599 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best comic mystery in a long time, November 11, 2002

By	Elizabeth Etzel (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Alto Wore Tweed (Paperback)

I have been reading mysteries for more years than I care to count. I prefer cozy or comic mysteries. I have read them all but I have now read one of the best. I easily compare this fresh new writer to Lilian Jackson Braun or Donald Westlake. While their work is sometimes stale, Schweizer is fresh and unexpected.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Alto Wore Tweed is a minor masterpiece, May 12, 2004

By A Customer

A friend -- an Episcopalian organist -- gave me this slim volume, remarking, "It's silly, but I think you'll like it." Like it! It's one of the funniest books I have ever read; it's as funny as Donald Westlake's Dancing Aztecs or Donna Andrews' Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon. It's about an Episcopalian organist who is also a small-town detective and thinks he's channeling Raymond Chandler. It didn't matter to me at all that I "got" the mystery early on -- I was too busy laughing. Well, I've heard of a fish named Wanda, but a god named Wanda?

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hayden Konig for president!, June 16, 2004

By	Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

My, oh, my...they don't write 'em like this anymore! Well, maybe they do and "The Alto Wore Tweed" should be on every musician's reading list this summer. In fact, anyone who is into whodunits will love this book about a guy who writes a book with no plot, except it has one, as does the main book. Or something like that. (There's even a cemetery plot, too!) All I can say is the butler didn't do it. Heck, "The Alto Wore Tweed" takes more turns than an O.J. Simpson car chase. The surprise is that it is June and I suddenly have a hankering for Hugo Distler's "The Christmas Story". Mark Schweizer, that's the mark of a good book....a bookmark, you might say.