The Music Box Enigma

by R.N. Morris

Overview

Could a mysterious music box hold the key to unlocking the puzzle behind a gruesome murder for Detective Inspector Silas Quinn? London, 1914. Despite a number of setbacks, rehearsals for The Hampstead Voices' Christmas concert are continuing apace. The sold-out event is raising funds for war refugees, and both Winston Churchill and Edward Elgar are expected to attend. But the most disturbing setback of all occurs when the choirmaster, Sir Aidan Fonthill, is discovered dead at a piano, a tuning fork protruding from his ear. Detective Chief Inspector Silas Quinn and his team from the Special Crimes Department at New Scotland Yard soon discover that Sir Aidan had a number of enemies, but who hated him enough to carry out such a heinous crime? Could the answer be linked to a mysterious music box delivered to Sir Aidan's house shortly before the murder, and can Silas solve the puzzle of the music box enigma and catch the killer before the concert takes place?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727889553
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Series:	Silas Quinn Series , #6
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.98(h) x (d)

About the Author

R.N. Morris is the author of five previous Silas Quinn mysteries as well as the acclaimed St Petersburg historical crime series featuring detective Porfiry Petrovich from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. He lives in north London with his wife and two children.

Editorial Reviews

Superior . . . A complex lead and an intricate puzzle elevate this entry

Publishers Weekly on The White Feather Killer

A gripping plot, realistic period ambience, taut suspense, and exceptional writing

Booklist on The White Feather Killer

Stellar . . . Ruth Rendell fans open to stories set a century ago will be well satisfied

Publishers Weekly Starred Review of The Dark Palace

Bleak, original, and absolutely gripping, this historical thriller makes for an unsettling and compelling read

Booklist Starred Review of The Red Hand of Fury

“A crisp and clever whodunit with a juicy gallery of suspects”

Kirkus Reviews

“Set in a vividly rendered London at the beginning of WWI, this is a finely crafted police procedural with a gripping plot, cleverly drawn characters, and a shocking ending” – Booklist

From the Publisher

Taut and twisty with a psychological intensity that's rare and compelling

Kirkus Reviews on The Red Hand of Fury

A gripping plot, realistic period ambience, taut suspense, and exceptional writing

null Booklist on The White Feather Killer

Bleak, original, and absolutely gripping, this historical thriller makes for an unsettling and compelling read

null Booklist Starred Review of The Red Hand of Fury

A gripping plot, realistic period ambience, taut suspense, and exceptional writing

Booklist on The White Feather Killer

Bleak, original, and absolutely gripping, this historical thriller makes for an unsettling and compelling read

Booklist Starred Review of The Red Hand of Fury

2020-05-18
Who murdered the philandering choirmaster?

Five days before the scheduled 1914 Hampstead Voices’ Christmas Concert, Lady Emma Fonthill and tenor Paul Seddon find Emma's husband, Sir Aidan, sitting dead at his piano, a tuning fork sticking out of his head. A flashback to two days earlier launches a series of sections structured as musical movements. Once the concert is sold out, Aidan feels emboldened to ask the music society’s dour young treasurer, Cavendish, to write him two blank checks for some “small expenses.” Later, during a visit to his young daughter, Daphne, Aidan places inappropriate hands on her teacher, Hattie Greene. Emma, who’s well aware of her husband’s “peccadillos,” spies on him regularly. Paul meanwhile confronts his sister, Anna, over the affair with Aidan that left her with a child. Composer Roderick Masters is furious that Aidan’s pronounced one of his Christmas pieces rubbish. Ursula Cavendish’s affair with Aidan enrages her husband, Charles. And then there’s colorful blackmailer Tiggie Benson. Aidan’s surprising changes of singing assignments and failure to pay his performers come to a head at the Voices' final rehearsal, making him a nervous wreck and leading to his murder. And what of the music box anonymously delivered to Aidan? DCI Silas Quinn must deal with the breakdown of his heretofore faithful Sgt. Inchball before proceeding to the crime at hand. The case seems straightforward, requiring only a methodical questioning of witnesses. But the murder of one of his men makes the case personal for Quinn.

A crisp and clever whodunit with a juicy gallery of suspects.

Kirkus Reviews