Fruitful Bodies: A Novel (The Sarah Selkirk Mysteries)

In Bath, internationally renowned cellist Sara Selkirk plays Dvorek on stage when she notices in the audience the pink suit. Her first cello teacher Professor Cruikshank, who tutored her back in the late 1970s at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, is attending her performance. Afterward Sara obtains work and treatment for her alcoholic ailing pedagogue as a musical therapist at the renowned Sulis Clinic run by Dr Golightly. While she helps her former instructor, her beloved Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Poole has rid himself of his disaffected ex-wife Valerie, but that fails to improve his relationship with Sara. Andrew explains that regardless of where their romance goes, he must put his kids' needs before their desires. She may detest that, but Sara knows he is right. When a Japanese tourist dies in an apparent homicide, nebulous links surface to the Sulis Clinic but especially to Professor Cruikshank. Besides insuring that her mentor is doing okay, Sara needs to prove that the professor had nothing to do with the murder that Andrew also investigates even as he asks her to stay out of it. A second homicide confirms her belief that all is not well at Sulis and she plans to insure that the killer pays the piper. The third Sara Selkirk amateur sleuth tale (see FUNERAL MUSIC and HALF BROKEN THINGS) is a terrific psychological thriller that grips readers from the opening note until the final coda is played. The story line is filled with several twists that will catch the audience unaware, but like it predecessors stupendous Sara is the star performer who turns the tale into a virtuoso concerto worth reading. Harriet Klausner