Thanks to Agora Books for a review copy.
Murder to Music, originally published in 1959, is the second in Agora Books’ ‘Uncrowned Queens of Crime’ season and is well deserving of its place.
The story revolves around an amateur choir’s debut performance of its ageing director’s latest composition, a mass which he hopes will help him secure his knighthood. The performance is to take place in the Royal Festival Hall and be broadcast by the BBC so the stakes are high both for composer and singers.
Behind the scenes however petty bickering, jealousies and old rivalries serve to set those on the choir committee at each other’s throats. Central to the unpleasantness is the deputy conductor who is a both unsympathetic and tactless when it comes to handling the choir and the committee. It is scarcely surprising when he is shot dead at the end of the performance and Detective Superintendent Hudson, attending the gala to support his girlfriend who both sings in the choir and sits on the committee, is tasked to investigate.
We need to suspend our disbelief that a police officer who is in a relationship with someone in the case would actually be allowed to investigate events but to be fair to DS Hudson, he is not shy in investigating all the key players thoroughly and risks alienating his girlfriend by asking her some very searching questions.
As the case proceeds things take a darker turn as a professional singer disappears and another member of the choir is attacked at home.
The case is set over the Christmas period and the author is able to conjure pictures of the snowy streets of London and the iced-over fields of Kent. She also manages to convey DS Hudson’s resentment of having to work over Christmas and his desire to solve the crime and hopefully exonerate his girlfriend without being heavy handed with emotional prose.
One of the strengths of the book is the delightful characterisation of the cast of people involved. The choristers and musicians come over as being a little highly strung and over sensitive but are by no means caricatures or unbelievable in the way they are written. My wife has extensive experience in choirs and orchestras and tells me that the situations and feuding described (with the exception of murder of course) are not so very far from the norm.
Although the story is primarily a mystery it is also very funny in places with witty and clever dialogue which made me laugh out loud. This is beautifully worked into the prose so that it never takes over from the main thrust of the novel but allows the lighter moments to shine through.
The solution when it comes is actually deeply tragic and, although the clues are there from the start, the realisation as to what has driven the murderer to act in the way they do is nevertheless horrific and understandable.
The author is not afraid to touch lightly on themes such as mental illness and homosexuality despite the fact that these were still largely taboo subjects at the time of writing. As ever though these are not rammed home with a heavy hand but form a natural part of the evolving tale.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to any lover of entertaining and well written classic mysteries. This was the only book published by Margaret Potter under the her maiden name of Margaret Newman under her own name though wrote extensively in different genres and under a variety of names until her death in 1998. She well deserves her place in the Uncrowned Queens of Crime season and will hopefully be enjoyed by many new readers.