Joyce has inherited a lake house in Ohio from her uncle, but when she arrives she finds summer music students living there, and a glowering older woman ensconced in her uncle’s quarters ready to contest his will. Also at the lake is timpanist (and recent lover) Jay, who has invited her to come to his performances at the Blossom Festival, but who seems to have a beautiful (and beautifully mean) soprano attached to his elbow.
As questions about the will become more severe, and someone from the house is found dead in the reeds by the lake, Joyce feels increasingly doubtful and even threatened over accepting the property. Jay’s friend Lewis, the dapper and scholastic music-loving priest, arrives in time to soothe some nerves and complicate others.
It’s a good thing that Joyce’s friend, the intrepid and shapeshifting Jon di Vine comes along to sort the mysteries for Joyce and the police, and of course, as he loves spectacle, he arranges a trap for the killer during a public rehearsal of Carmina Burana. Never a dull moment when these friends get together. Their lively comradery and regard for each other, begun in the novel Double Takes, grows exponentially in Mystery at Oboe Lake.
