Death in D Minor (A Gethsemane Brown Mystery #2)

Author:  Alexia Gordon
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book; Audiobook
ISBN #:  9781635112346; 9781635112313;9781520078267
Henery Press Publishing
236 Pages
$31.95; $15.95; $29.99; $2.99 Amazon
March 10, 2017

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Gethsemane Brown, African-American classical musician and expatriate to an Irish village, solved a string of murders, led a school orchestra to victory in a major competition, and got used to living with a snarky ghost.  She can rest easy over the Christmas holiday.  Right?  Wrong.  The ghost has disappeared, her landlord's about to sell her cottage to a hotel developer, and her brother-in-law is coming for a visit - with one day's notice.  She scrambles to call her spectral roomie back from beyond and find a way to save the cottage from certain destruction.  But real estate takes a backseat when her brother-in-law is accused of stealing a valuable antique.  Gethsemane strikes a deal with a garda investigator to go undercover as a musician at a charity ball and snoop for evidence linking antiques to a forgery/theft ring in exchange for the investigator's help clearing her brother-in-law.  At the party, she accidentally conjures the ghost of an eighteenth-century sea captain, then ends up the prime suspect in the party host's murder.  With the captain's help, she races to untangle a web of phony art and stolen antiques to exonerate herself and her brother-in-law.  Then the killer targets her.  Will she save herself and bring a thief and murderer to justice, or will her encore investigation become her swan song?

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Gethsemane Brown is a music teacher in Ireland, a fairly new life.  She lives at Carraigfaire Cottage, once the home of a famous Irish composer, Eamon McCarthy.  While Eamon's ghost once haunted the cottage, he has since disappeared.  And Gethsemane wants him back - mainly because his descendant Billy, the current owner, is planning to sell the cottage to an American real estate developer named Hank Wayne who will destroy the heart of the cottage while turning it into a hotel.  Because of this, she asks for help from the local priest in the form of borrowing a book to summon spirits, in the hope that it will bring Eamon back to get rid of Hank, who has a deathly fear of ghosts.  But instead, it brings the spirit of a sea captain who needs her help.

To add to this her brother-in-law Jackson Applethwaite arrives looking to purchase a needlework collection for his museum.  But when a small piece of the collection - now stolen - is found in the pocket of his overcoat, he is suspected of the crime.  In order to clear his name, Gethsemane agrees to go undercover at a private function for Olivia McCarthy-Boyle, a serious art collector, as one of the musicians in order to find a bill of sale for the collection.

But while searching for the bill of sale, Gethsemane encounters a few slight problems...first, that the ghost she conjured up isn't that of Eamon, but a Colonial sea captain, and while she's still adjusting to it, she finds Mrs. McCarthy-Boyle's body in the bushes below the office balcony. 

Now art fraud has escalated to what appears to be murder.  At first it seems that Gethsemane is the guilty one, but luckily there was a witness to her whereabouts, yet Jackson's still not off the hook, and suddenly her simple task seems to have become much more complicated.  Only her wits and hopefully, the help of Captain Lochlan, will help her find the truth before Jackson isn't able to return home to Virginia at all but remain in Ireland, and in a lot more cloistered area than the remote village where she lives...

For the most part, I enjoyed this book.  I thought the plot was well thought out and the writing was very good.  What bothered me though is that I had a hard time believing a priest would actually give anyone a book on summoning spirits - especially knowing why she wanted it.  I seriously doubt if you went to a priest and asked him for a book so you could summon 'just one' ghost that he would willingly give you a book (if there was one in his possession).  It's not the sort of thing they do.

Secondly, Gethsemane is just a tad arrogant - it was apparent in the first book, but I hoped it had been toned down a bit for this one.  However, she believes herself such a good detective that she actually compares herself to Poirot - yes, Christie's Poirot.  That's arrogance.  Don't get me wrong, I like strong female characters, but when she withholds potential information so that she can investigate, and in a country she's still unfamiliar with?  It doesn't ring true. 

Aside from these things, the ending was satisfactory, and while I enjoyed the first book more, I will probably read the next in the series.

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Minor-Gethsemane-Brown-Mystery/dp/1635112311/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2251391262

More on Alexia Gordon's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/alexia-gordon/                   

Murder in G Major (A Gethsemane Brown Mystery Book 1)

Author:  Alexia Gordon
Genre:  Mystery

Paperback, Ebook
ISBN #:  9781635110579
Henery Press
268 Pages
$15.95; $2.99 Amazon
September 13, 2016

Four Stars

With few other options, African-American classical musician Gethsemane Brown accepts a less-than-ideal position turning a group of rowdy schoolboys into an award-winning orchestra.  Stranded without luggage or money in the Irish countryside, she figures any job is better than none.  The perk:  Housesitting a lovely cliffside cottage.  The catch?  The ghost of the cottage's murdered owner haunts the place.  Falsely accused of killing his wife (and himself), he begs Gethsemane to clear his name so he can rest in peace.  Gethsemane's reluctant investigation provokes a dormant killer and she soon finds herself in grave danger.  As Gethsemane races to prevent a deadly encore, will she uncover the truth or star in her own farewell performance?

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Gethsemane Brown is a gifted musician who has recently been cheated out of a much-coveted position as an assistant conductor of a prestigious orchestra.  She has also arrived in Ireland with her luggage and money stolen, having accepted a position to turn unruly schoolboys into an orchestra the school can not only be proud of, but to win a trophy the school's not had for seventy-five years.

It is at least fortunate she's allowed to live at the cottage of her late idol, Eamon McCarthy.  What she doesn't count on, however, is that the late Mr. McCarthy is still living at the cottage...as a ghost.  When he realizes that Gethsemane can not only see him, but hear him, he pleads with her to solve his murder.  While it has been determined that he threw his wife off a cliff in a rage, and then committed suicide in remorse, Eamon vows this is not true.  At first Gethsemane refuses, but it it not too long before her curiosity gets the better of her and she agrees to help him.

When she begins digging into the past she finds inconsistencies regarding the investigation into the deaths of Eamon and his beloved wife Orla.  It's enough for her to try and convince the police that Eamon not only did not murder his wife, he did not commit suicide.  But the officer in charge of cold cases tells her to leave it be, since there's no physical evidence to back it up.  But as she keeps looking for ways to prove it was murder, it appears that there is at least one person who doesn't want her to discover it, and will go to any lengths to ensure she doesn't dig any deeper...

I enjoyed the book for the most part, with Gethsemane determined to find out the truth for Eamon as well as herself.  I also liked the fact that she asked questions without being too invasive, therefore making it believable that she was only asking in the reasoning of wanting to know more about the inhabitants of her present living quarters.

However, I didn't understand why she didn't have any money.  Was her purse stolen?  If not, why would you put money in your luggage, or even your carry on?  This doesn't scream "intelligent woman" to me.  The other things that bothered me about Gethsemane was the fact that she is written as strong, determined, self-willed, smart, brave, quick-witted, etc.  In other words, a Paragon Among Women.  She has a brilliant family (how many entire families do you know that are overachievers?)  She has no problem going where she isn't supposed to, and without fear.  She faces down people who wish to do her harm, without being nervous about the encounter.  I would think at least in a couple of situations there would have been trepidation or nervousness, but I saw none of that.  It made her appear almost robotic.  Having a strong female character is great, but not if it seems as if she's stepped out of a scientist's lab.  

I did feel that there should have been more descriptions of the characters, as I didn't feel that I got to know any of them very well.  But since this is the author's first book, I am hoping that we'll learn more as the series progresses. 

 Aside from this, I felt it was an interesting twist regarding the murderer (for we know there is one), and it all came together quite well.  I felt that the writing was sharp and the plot one that has a very interesting premise.  This, my friends, is a book you can sit down, get a cup of coffee or tea, and contentedly read into the night.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Major-Gethsemane-Brown-Mystery-ebook/dp/B01H42FOHK/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1730178052