Book Review-Death in C Minor

I received a copy of this book from the author for my honest review and I can't tell you how excited I am to have been contacted about reviewing this book.




Synopsis from Publicist:
In A DEATH IN C MINOR, Jessica Beaumont, a critically acclaimed American concert pianist, travels to the English village of Kenwick (Essex) to piece her life back together. In quick succession, her husband left her for another woman, and her only child was killed in a hit-and-run accident. Feeling completely unmoored, Jess fled from her last piano recital in America and then, despairing, attempted suicide. Now Jess hopes the quiet village life and change of scenery will allow her the space and time to heal. But she soon learns that the village isn’t the idyll she imagined. A year earlier, Peter Chandler, a relative newcomer to Kenwick, was found hacked with a cleaver in his own home, not far from Jess’s rented 17th century cottage. Equally disturbing, the case remains unsolved.


Like Jess, New Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Mick Chandra has a few ghosts. He was raised in industrial Liverpool, where his father was murdered. It was the loss of his father that led Mick to pursue police work. With the uncanny intuition he credits his Kerala Indian grandmother for passing along, and the memory of his father to inspire him, Mick succeeds in New Scotland Yard’s Criminal Investigation Department, even though racial tensions still divide the officers. When he gets the Chandler cold case file, he quickly re-opens the investigation and heads off to Kenwick, hoping to stay with the same villagers who put him up on another occasion. But they’ve left to work for a year in the United States and Jess occupies their cottage. Though taken aback by Mick’s request and unprepared for a guest, Jess agrees to let Mick stay. Their mutual attraction is instantaneous. But another man in Kenwick already has his eye on Jess, a man who doesn’t like rivals. And, unaccountably, the village residents do not want the Chandler case re-opened.

There was so much I enjoyed in the reading. For instance, I can’t think of another mystery in which one of the main characters is a concert pianist. It’s a compelling and fresh twist. And I loved that Jess refuses to give up—on life, on love, or on her own dreams. She has real spirit. Plus, who doesn’t love an English mystery and being immersed in the life of a quaint village, especially when you get to meet characters like 82 year old WWII veteran Sir Brian Foley, who is also a wise but kind critic of his community? But most of all for a mystery buff, Ms. Yount has a written compelling “whodunit.” I couldn’t figure out who the killer was and savored the surprise.

About the author:
Rebecca Yount trained from childhood as a concert pianist, is a published poet, and worked in education reform, but she always nurtured a passion for storytelling which she has indulged only late in life. Coming from a family of writers, it wasn’t hard for her to put pen to paper, but it took an actual unsolved murder to give her the idea for her first novel. On a home exchange in England—something she and her husband regularly do—a villager told her about a local murder that remained unsolved, even by New Scotland Yard. Sitting under a tree in a fallow field one day, Rebecca began to imagine what might have happened. The result is A DEATH IN C MINOR. In 2010, Rebecca underwent open heart surgery, which left her unable to write for two years. After this hiatus, she returned to writing, deciding to put the entire Mick Chandra series out herself as e-books. She is retired and lives in Virginia with her husband, writer David Yount.

My review:

Mick Chandra is the new detective in the literary scene and a name that will soon grace the minds and lips of readers across the world. He epitomizes what all readers want. For the men, he is macho and tough, smart, and will stop at nothing to catch the bad guy. For the women, he is hot, tender, smart, and will stop at nothing to catch the bad guy. And for the reader, he is all of this and more as the words that Yount weaves throughout the pages to tell the stories that unfold around Mick and his job. Death in C Minor is the first book in a series about this character, who works for Scotland Yard in London. While, Mick is the main character, the other characters are so fully developed and in the fore front of all the action, it is at times hard to say that Mick steals the show throughout the entire book.

In this first book of the series, Mick is trying to figure out a murder mystery in a small village outside of London. The village is made up of a mish mash of characters that will become central to Mick's life and investigation. The book is full of action and is fast paced to where it was hard for me to stop reading, even for a few minutes, as I couldn't wait to read what happened next. The author teases and taunts the reader as just when you think you know who done it-a new clue pops up to make you realize that you are back at square one in trying to figure out the mystery. I know that anything I write here will not begin to do justice to that author or book, so you must read this as soon as possible so you can fall in love with this series like I did.