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- Herausgeber: Joslyn Chase
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
New spin on an old art form. Criminals beware.
A concert pianist, classically trained and touched by tragedy. A sculptor, learning how to live again after a traumatic brain injury.
Each damaged by circumstance and struggling to rise from the ashes, they join forces to solve a puzzling crime after witnessing a terrible tragedy that turned out to be more than mere accident.
Piano meets chisel in a bravura performance that will keep you guessing to the end. Don’t miss it!
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Duet for Piano & Chisel
A collaboration mystery featuring Riley Forte & David Peeler
Joslyn Chase
Contents
Author's Note
Duet for Piano & Chisel
Sample from Steadman's Blind
More books by Joslyn Chase
About the Author
Copyright
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Author's Note
This story is a collaboration mystery, combining characters from two of my series who meet by chance, hit it off, and find their skill sets complement each other, enhancing their crime-solving abilities when they work as a team.
Riley Forte and Detective Nate Quentin hail from the world of Nocturne In Ashes, and you’ll find David Peeler and Robyn Vaughan introduced in Death of a Muse.
I hope you enjoy their collaboration, adding your own skills to theirs as you read Duet for Piano & Chisel.
Joslyn Chase
Duet for Piano & Chisel
In her travels as a concert pianist, Riley had visited Spain six or seven times. She’d worn a polka-dotted dress and danced the Sevillana during Feria. She’d caught handfuls of pelted candy at the Three Kings’ Day parade and gone tapas hopping until dawn. Once, she’d even climbed to the top of a craggy rock in Tarifa and looked across to Africa before rappelling down the cliff-face and nearly breaking an ankle.
But she’d never been to a bullfight.
Now, watching the man with the scarlet cloth, she could almost feel the rumble of the ground vibrating under clashing hooves as they raged toward the swinging cape. Not more than ten feet in front of her, the man holding the cloth danced out his convincing presentation, wielding the cape with fierce concentration, brows drawn together on his forehead, a glimmer of arrogance in his eyes. Riley felt both fascination and embarrassment, but she couldn’t look away.
The most compelling feature of the spectacle was that it took place on the polished marble floor of the Mackenzie mansion on the shores of Washington’s Lake Sammamish, off I-90. The tinkle of champagne glasses and murmured conversation punctuated by bursts of laughter swirled around Riley. Strings of colored Christmas lights festooned the walls and a twelve-foot Noble fir, decked with tinsel and ornaments, stood sentinel over the gathered party.
Most of the guests in their cocktail finery hadn’t noticed the man in the corner stamping his feet and flourishing the blood-red muleta as if a roaring applause spurred him on. Those who had, watched with interest or thinly veiled derision.
No one stepped forward to put an end to the display.
With a satiny rustle, a woman arrived at Riley’s shoulder and spoke into her ear. “It’s called Utilization Behavior. Be a dear and hold these for me, won’t you?”
She handed Riley two flutes half-filled with pale champagne and stepped toward the man, gently taking the cape from his fingers and returning it to the hook from whence it came, next to an ornate matador’s costume and an elaborate sword made of Toledo steel. A dazed look crossed the man’s face, as if he’d just woken from a dream. It was followed by a wash of red as he noticed his audience.
The woman—Riley recognized her as Robyn Vaughan, the concert pianist known for her mastery of Mozart—squeezed his hand. He gave a self-conscious shrug and exited down the hall toward the powder room. Robyn spread a defiant smile over the onlookers, smoothed the skirt of her designer gown, and returned to Riley’s side, retrieving the flutes and taking a sip from one of them.
“Let’s count ourselves lucky he didn’t pull down the sword,” she said, her lips twisting in a wry grimace. “David lost a small piece of his brain to a surgeon’s knife a few years back and it changed him in many ways. Utilization Behavior—or UB, as it’s called by the men in white coats—is a neurological disorder that presents its sufferers with an irresistible compulsion to handle objects, using them in an appropriate manner, but not always in the appropriate venue or moment. It’s given David quite a lot of grief since the surgery. Let’s not mention it when he comes back.”
“Of course,” Riley said. A server appeared, bearing a silver tray with a single glass. Ginger ale, rather than champagne. Riley never drank alcohol. She took the glass and nodded her thanks to the young man before turning back to the woman.
“I’m so happy to meet you Ms. Vaughan. Your performance this evening was magical. I’ve never been able to master the left hand articulations in that Mozart Sonata.”
Robyn laughed, raising her glass. They clinked. “So you say, Riley Forte, but I’d hate to face you in a battle of the Brahms. You’ve got me there—hands down.”
“Nice one.” Riley smiled, acknowledging the pun and the compliment to her night’s performance. “Why don’t we meet over Shostakovich—home field advantage to neither one of us.”
Shostakovich was a contemporary composer, while Riley specialized in music from the Romantic period and Robyn favored the Classical masters. Riley dipped into the Baroque on occasion, and she adored many of the twentieth-century musicians, Debussy and Barber first among them.
“I’ll give it some thought,” Robyn said in reply to her challenge.
Riley sipped fizzy liquid from her fluted glass, savoring the mild flavor. Her own concert career, derailed after the death of her husband and son, had been regaining traction since the harrowing events surrounding Mt. Rainier’s eruption last year. She’d like to credit her nimble fingers, but knew she owed a great deal of her current success to her mysterious new sponsor.
