Customer Reviews

Trouble in the Brasses

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One of Charlotte MacLeod's best. Written under the pseudonym Alisa Craig. Detective Inspector Maddoc Rhys of the RCMP is a balanced, likable and intelligent character. In this one, his world-class conductor father is concerned about undercurrents in the orchestra as they are about to go to a major music festival somewhere out west and asks for his son's help. Leaving his wife Janet behind in Frederickton, he goes to answer his father's call for help.

Right before the key characters pile onto a private jet to fly to said festival, one of the musicians drops dead backstage. They are allowed to leave because at the time it was believed that the fat man died of natural causes. The plane is forced to make an emergency landing much farther north, in the middle of nowhere, in what is in summer an old west style resort, but in fall and winter essentially a ghost town. A second murder occurs while they are stranded.

The cast of characters include, in addition to Rhys, his Welsh father and his rather haughty mother Lady Rhys, a menagerie of rather eccentric classical musicians as well as the pilots and at least one other endearingly crazy local. The plot twists are interesting and plausible, Rhy's sleuthing makes sense and is well laid-out. Since this is a cozy, the killer gets arrested and hauled off (by a rather eccentric local lady sheriff), and everyone else (at least those not murdered) goes to wherever they wanted to be.

I liked the book well enough to buy a replacement when my original copy got too ratty. I tend to read my favorites multiple times, and this was a favorite.

Fun for anyone who wants an insider's glimpse of an orchestra.

A plane carrying an orchestra along with the conductor, Sir Emmelin Rhys, his wife, and their son Madoc Rhys (who works as a Canadian mountie, not having inherited the family talent for music) crash-lands in the Canadian wilds.

Everyone is safe, but stranded in a remote and abandoned resort. When a murder occurs, it's up to Madoc to solve the mystery and get everyone safely home.