Shades of Blue-Bill Moody

Shades of Blue
Bill Moody
Poisoned Pen, Feb 2008, $24.95
ISBN 9781590584859

Back from Europe (see LOOKING FOR CHET BAKER), jazz pianist Evan Horne and his girlfriend FBI agent Andie Lawrence move in together in Monte Rio in Northern California. Life is great until he learns his teacher-friend, pianist Calvin Hughes died; Calvin left his entire estate to his favorite pupil.

Grieving though he had not seen Calvin in ages, Horne travels to Hughes’s Los Angeles home to sort through the estate. When he finds an odd note with a photograph of Hughes standing next to a baby carriage, taped to the bottom of a drawer, Horne wonders what the picture means and why did Calvin conceal it. Horne also discovers some very old handwritten sheet music, two famous Miles Davis recordings. More interested in the music than the baby, Horne investigates how Hughes ended up with the treasures.

The investigation seems superfluous lacking the usual crescendo of a Horne inquiry. Still jazz fans will appreciate the tidbits especially the Mile Davis subplot as the references to music is cleverly used to enhance the tale as the music is the magic. More for jazz lovers than mystery fans, SHADES OF BLUE is entertaining but far from Bill Moody’s usual concerto.

Harriet Klausner