From Publishers Weekly
Jazz pianist Evan Horne improvises with the FBI in his latest after-hours murder investigation (following The Sound of the Trumpet). When a popular "smooth jazz" saxophone player is fatally stabbed in Horne's Southern Californian town, the piano man is called in by his best pal, Santa Monica homicide detective Danny Cooper, to decipher the clues left at the concert-hall crime scene, including the phrase "Bird Lives!" scrawled in blood on the dead man's dressing-room mirror. Soon it's revealed that two other fusion jazz musiciansAa guitarist and a piano playerAhave recently been murdered in New York City, and Horne helps move the case forward by figuring out the significance of the dates on which the three deaths occurred and of the music playing at each death scene. But his increasing involvement in the investigation begins to undermine both his new recording contract and his relationship with a long-time girlfriend, while opening up romantic possibilities with FBI Special Agent Andrea Lawrence. Although well-played, Moody's plot is less than compelling because it moves along predictable lines. The jazz esoterica and the unusual serial killer, however, should keep Evan Horne fans reading, and they will be pleased to see that the piano player has finally recovered from his hand injury. Agent, Philip J. Spitzer Agency.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Now that jazz pianist Evan Horne is playing music again, he'd like to concentrate only on his upcoming recording gig--not on a series of murders in the music industry. It doesn't work that way, as Horne, whose playing career was interrupted by the hand injury he sustained in Solo Hand (1994), is strong-armed by the FBI into helping track down a crazed purist who is killing "smooth" jazz stars and leaving a bird feather, symbolic of Charlie Parker, on the bodies. Jazz fans will love the joke here: the Kenny Gs of the world finally get their comeuppance, after having made millions playing a watered-down version of jazz. As usual in this series, Moody is much stronger on the jazz elements than on the human interaction: a subplot involving Horne's failing relationship with his girlfriend and tentative flirtation with an FBI agent seems strained, with too much first-person agonizing and some clunky dialogue. But the witty premise and all the jazz talk will more than satisfy series fans. Bill Ott
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
