This is another Evan Horne mystery, where the author continues to infuse mystery with jazz music. Evan is a jazz pianist who is just returning from a year of forced sabbatical due to a near crippling injury to his right hand sustained in a car accident. The book opens as he kick offs his first gig on his comeback trail.

The comeback is more successful than he might have hoped; within the audience is a producer who offers him a contract from a recording company. This producer Paul Westbrook warns him to avoid his well-known extracurricular activities in crime solving.

The warning came a but late as famous jazz performer Ty Rodman had been murdered the night before and Evan had already been invited to the crime scene by his friend Lt. Cooper, the investigating officer. On the dressing room mirror was the painted sign “Bird Lives” and a CD of Parker’s music was playing.

Evan is able to persuade Cooper that this all has meaning as the date of Rodman’s death was also the anniversary death of Parker’s death. The message is pretty clear, that the classic music of Parker lives. Unbeknownst to Evan, there have been a couple of other murders of jazz musicians, and, when Cooper confides in him he is able to link dates of death to “happenings” of Parker’s trio.

Murders of several linked high profile people generally garner the attention of the FBI, and sure enough they show up in town. Cooper gets Evan to accompany him to the initial meeting because of their very long-term friendship and Evan’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz. The FBI has brought their own profiler Andrea Lawrence and Evan is asked to work with her.

Murders continue and because of some very unique twists Evan is drawn into the center of the investigation. The novel is told in the first person narrative, which makes it almost impossible to clearly define the other principal characters. This point of view makes it also very difficult to sustain any tension, either on the mystery or on the romantic front.

Overriding everything is the voice of Evan that teaches the reader about the world of jazz musicians, sharing arcane facts about them. He draws us into this world, which is not as glamorous as people might expect.

Unless you are really into jazz, this novel may have more information than you want. The music is very loud and clear, but the murders seem to occur merely as vehicles for espousing the view that classic jazz will win out in the end.

--Thea Davis