Murder in C Major

 Murder in C Major (1986) by Sara Hoskinson Frommer

Joan Spencer, a widowed mother of a teenage son, moves back home to Oliver, Indiana when life becomes a bit complicated where they were. She had spent the first dozen years or so there before her family moved and had good memories. She's trying to find a way to fit in again and is pleased to be able land a chair in the viola section of the Oliver Civic Symphony. There she finds a familiar face in her sixth grade best friend, Nancy (Krebs) Van Allen. Soon Nancy has caught her up on everyone still in town and suggests she call on their sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Duffy. Margaret Duffy hooks Joan up with a director's position at the local Senior Citizen's Center. She also takes on a part-time position as the orchestra's secretary. Her son is doing well at his new school and all seems to be smooth sailing....

Until George Petris, the very rude and obnoxious first oboe, collapses during a rehearsal and dies in the emergency room. The doctors initially want to put it down as a heart attack, but Yoichi Nakamura, the orchestra's manager isn't so sure. The symptoms displayed before Petris was taken to the hospital remind him of a death he witnessed that was the result of puffer fish poisoning. He confides in Joan who suggests, if he concerned, that he should bring it to the attention of one of their bassoonists, Sam Wade--who is also the county prosecutor. 

Soon Lieutenant Fred Lundquist is assigned to "babysit" the case. That is, to do a good enough investigation to lay Yoichi's fears to rest and forget about it. But the more Lundquist asks question, the more he thinks Yoichi is right. And then another orchestra member, who picked up Petris's oboe after the emergency, is found killed and the oboe is nowhere be found. Now Lundquist is sure that Yoichi is right. But who among the many who disliked Petris hated him enough to kill...and to kill again to cover their tracks?

This is the first book in the Joan Spencer mystery series and the second one that I've read. I tried Frommer's style out first in The Vanishing Violinist--where, as I mentioned in the review, I didn't feel like I had lost anything by jumping in mid-stream, so to speak. It was nice to go back to the beginning and see how it all began for Joan and getting the initial introduction to the characters that reappear in later installments. Frommer does a very good job in this series debut setting the framework and establishing Joan and the other characters. Her plotting is really quite good for a first mystery (for this is her debut as a mystery author as well as the debut for Joan). She gives the motive a very nice twist and even though I did spot the killer, I absolutely missed on the why. Of course, [Spoiler hidden in ROT13 Coding] vg urycf (jvgu uvqvat gur zbgvir) jura lbhe ernqre qbrfa'g ernyvmr gung gur jebat crefba jnf xvyyrq. Naq V gbgnyyl zvffrq gur nppvqragny fjvgpu gung unccrarq juvpu erfhygrq va gur Trbetr'f qrngu. If I had caught that, I might have figured out why the killer did it.

Overall, a very good cozy mystery. ★★★★

First line: Ironing for a corpse wasn't Joan Spencer's idea of fun.

Last line: "Could you really have played the oboe solo on that sax?"

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Deaths = 2 (one poisoned; one throat cut)