Fourth in the "Bill Slider" detective series. This is the one where a famous (but unpopular) conductor is shot dead at the start of a concert in a church. Joanna is in the orchestra, and so this provides Slider with a chance to try and build bridges with her.

Another reliably good one. Although I think this was mainly enjoyable because of what happens with Joanna. At the start of the book, she's told Bill that the relationship's off, and so in this book he's trying to work things out with her. I was almost on the edge of my seat for parts of this, willing her to say "yes" to him: fascinating how much you can care for fictional creatures.

The ending of the crime plot felt a little bit half-hearted to me, but perhaps that's because I was emotionally drained by the Joanna plot.

Couple of things I noted for this one: first, she had a chapter called "The Dog it was that Died" which couldn't help but put me in mind of The Painted Veil. And a nice description of an office:

everything in the office seemed to have been chosen to declare that if money was no object, good taste certainly wasn't either.

Completed : 10-Mar-2012