Customer Reviews

Solo Hand

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After an accident has rendered his left hand--his solo hand--unfit for playing the jazz piano that's been his livelihood,
Evan Horne is reluctantly recruited as a bag-man in an elaborate blackmail scheme involving his ex-wife and former
employer and a host of colorful characters ranging from an ex-NFL-player-turned-bodyguard to a strangely-erudite
country singer.
But what at first seems a straightforward money-drop becomes a convoluted and constricting tangle of
circumstance with Evan at its center, struggling against an unknown schemer who seems to know all-too-much about
this musician-turned-detective. Soon the police are involved and Evan Horne learns just how cut-throat the music
business can be. But this is no prissy tickler of the ivories; this is a man who uses the discipline and perserverance that
made him a musician make him a detective.
Moody plays out an intricate plot at a masterful pace, creating authentic characters and an atmosphere deeply informed with Moody's experiences as musician, DJ, and historian. Evan Horne is a likeable and resourceful hero who narrates but doesn't preach, who informs as he entertains.
Solo Hand is a must-read for anyone interested in those two American pastimes: Jazz and murder.

After an accident has rendered his left hand--his solo hand--unfit for playing the jazz piano that's been his livelihood, Evan Horne is reluctantly recruited as a bag-man in an elaborate blackmail scheme involving his ex-wife and former employer and a host of colorful characters ranging from an ex-NFL-player-turned-bodyguard to a strangely-erudite country singer. But what at first seems a straightforward money-drop becomes a convoluted and constricting tangle of circumstance with Evan at its center, struggling against an unknown schemer who seems to know all-too-much about this musician-turned-detective. Soon the police are involved and Evan Horne learns just how cut-throat the music business can be. But this is no prissy tickler of the ivories; this is a man who uses the discipline and perserverance that made him a musician make him a detective.
Moody plays out an intricate plot at a masterful pace, creating authentic characters and an atmosphere deeply informed with Moody's experiences as musician, DJ, and historian. Evan Horne is a likeable and resourceful hero who narrates but doesn't preach, who informs as he entertains.
Solo Hand is a must-read for anyone interested in those two American pastimes: Jazz and murder.

Although I am a big fan of Bill Moody and this was the only book of his that I hadn't read, I wouldn't purchase this book until the publisher gets their act together. There are chunks of the book that abruptly stop and then a repeat of earlier pages appears. Pages 61-68 are missing and just filled with pages already printed. It happens again on pages 71 and 72. Even without parts of the story being MIA, it isn't his best book. It seems to stray too far from the musical world some of his earlier books inhabited. I was very disappointed.