Murder Mezzo Forte by Donn Taylor

He is a reclusive history professor with musical hallucinations, she a headstrong professor of religion, a converted Wiccan. Earlier, they solved a campus murder, but now police say they formed two-thirds of an illicit love triangle with a newly-murdered female colleague and they're probably guilty of her murder. A leak of the alleged scandal to the college administration threatens their jobs. Their desperate attempt to prove themselves innocent of the triangle and the murder plunges them into a tangle of unsavory corporate relationships among college trustees. And it puts their lives in danger from a mysterious criminal organization that seems to have tentacles everywhere. 

Can this ill-matched pair's stumbling efforts succeed against the entrenched forces of the police, the college's incompetent administration, and that powerful but unseen criminal organization? If not, they may end up unemployed, in prison, or suffering a fate much worse . . .

My review:

  I had never read anything by this author, but it sounded good and right up my mystery/suspense loving alley. It is a sequel, but I don't feel like I would have had to read the first book to know what was going on, as it made enough references that I was able to pick up a good idea what happened in book one.

   The book doesn't take long to launch into the murder and mystery, and pulled me into the story very quickly. I found myself liking the main characters a lot, and love the writing style of Donn Taylor. I found myself chuckling or laughing out loud several times at his descriptions of people and the antics of his main character. The plot was well done, and was difficult enough that I wasn't sure what was going on, yet easy enough to keep up with.

 My one complaint about the book: the main character hears music in his head all of the time, changing styles, songs, and instruments depending on who he is around or what is going on. I found the constant updates on what music he was hearing annoying and distracting. Other than that, I very much enjoyed the book and am looking to read more of  the author's books, especially his military ones.

  This book was given to me in exchange for my honest review.

About the author:

Donn Taylor is a novelist and poet of varied career. He led an Infantry rifle platoon in the Korean War, served with Army aviation in Vietnam, and worked with air reconnaissance in Europe and Asia. Afterwards, he earned a PhD in English literature (Renaissance) and for eighteen years taught literature at two liberal arts colleges. His fiction includes a light-hearted mystery, Rhapsody in Red, a historical, Lightning on a Quiet Night (a finalist for the Selah Awards), and two suspense novels, Deadly Addictive and The Lazarus File. He has also published a book of poetry, Dust and Diamond: Poems of Earth and Beyond. He is a frequent speaker at writers' groups and conferences. He lives near Houston, TX, where he continues to write fiction and poetry, as well as essays on writing, ethical issues, and U.S. foreign policy.


Thanks to Litfuse for the review copy.