Funeral Music by Morag Joss is an example of the sub-genre of mysteries where a crime is solved not by a cop or a detective, but rather, by an amateur who has nothing to do with such things by profession. Or in this case, interest: in fact, the heroine du jour, Sara Selkirk, is a concert cellist. That's what drew me to this book in the first place, thinking that I like cello music and I like mysteries, so how can I go wrong?Wishful thinking, unfortunately. You know that Point of View panel I posted about at Writer's Weekend, the one that opined that a book should stay away from head-hopping? This book does that. It's only a little scattered at first, generally good about having hard scene breaks before jumping into somebody else's head, and with only occasional bits where this is broken. But towards the end, where the heroine comes extremely close to getting offed by the killer, we suddenly get a scene where the POV jumps back and forth between heroine and killer with every paragraph.Part of me can see why the author wrote it this way: it does lend the scene a certain immediacy that you wouldn't get if you had only the heroine's POV and then the killer's, or vice versa. But because the heroine never knows that the killer is there, and because each paragraph winds up being a dump of the characters' inner thoughts without making them really interact, it really wound up reading exactly like a MUSH roleplay log. A pretty well written one, mind you, but a roleplay log nonetheless. And that really kind of took me out of the story.The second beef I have with the book is purely a matter of personal taste rather than any fault of the writing, but it's one that took enjoyment out of it for me anyway: to wit, the heroine has a growing relationship with a man who's already married and who has children. This is certainly plausible in this day and age, and I will grant that Joss does not shirk from awareness that this will have its consequences if it is allowed to continue. But for me, anyway, it's just not fun to read about that. I went through enough of that growing up that I prefer to avoid it in my reading.Last but not least, I have an issue with the heroine Sara falling apart and turning into a big blubbering mess in the climactic scene where she confronts one of the people responsible for the first death in the book. She has a very,very good reason to wig out--the other party is threatening to sever the tendons of her right hand and ruin her ability to play ever again, which I absolutely buy as terrifying for a musician. Yet it was grating to see Sara do nothing but freeze up and whine, and furthermore have to be rescued from the situation by the Big Strong Man.Overall, aside from the head-hopping thing, I did kind of like the writing. Joss has a decent command of the language and filled in some nice little nuances in her characters. Problem was, I just didn't like most of those people very much, and was therefore ultimately unsatisfied by the story. Two and a half stars.
Set in Bath, England, and first in a series to feature cellist Sara Selkirk, and as the series opens, Sara has all but given up her playing in public, due to a past trauma in her life. However, convinced by a dear friend to play with him at a local museum benefit, things begin to look up for her career. I wish I could say that this is just the backstory to a good mystery, but that's just not the case. In fact, the mystery, such as it is, is really kind of a sideline to Sara's story. As it happens, she happens to discover the body of Matthew Sawyer, museum director, dead in an ancient spring at the city's famous Roman baths. And because for some reason everyone wants to confide in her, including DCI Andrew Poole (to whom she also gives cello lessons), she begins to link the pieces of the murder puzzle together. Although there's a crime, and although there are plenty of suspects, the mystery itself is a bit disjointed, easy to solve, and really takes a back seat to the life of Sara Selkirk. So this book probably sits more comfortably in the cozy genre. I understand that the author's job in the first book of any series is to introduce his or her main characters, but I heard many good things about Morag Joss and I was so surprised at how this book turned out. Overall...it could have been much more in depth and much more of a mystery than it was. I think I'd recommend it to readers of cozy mysteries, but not for those who like more hard-core crime novels.
What do You think about Funeral Music (2005)?
It was a pleasant read, but not a riveting one. Although the book is marketed as a mystery, it's really more a novel about the main character, Sara Selkirk, her suspended musical career, and the interest she has in a murder committed in the Roman baths of Bath, England. Unfortunately, I really couldn't muster up much enthusiasm or interest in her or in most of the other characters. The plot meandered at times; all of the characters and events eventually tied into the conclusion, but several of the key events seemed forced and some of the characters seemed as though they were in the novel purely to fulfill some plot device. This book would be good, light reading for anyone who enjoys English settings, and who dislikes explicit violence or grit.
—Cathleen
This is the first in a series of mysteries - I may have seen it recommended on this site, or on Amazon - I don't remember. (This is a weird review to write because I thought I had already written it...!) Anyway, I liked the characters (the main character is a cellist, and many of her friends are musicians too, which was an interesting glimpse into that world), and the setting (contemporary Bath, England). Some of it is a little contrived, but there is a power to her writing and characterization that makes me want to read more of her books.
—Judy
