Death on the High C's

New York: Dell Publishing, 1988. Two previous Dell editions [stated], First Dell printing [stated] thus. Mass market paperback. Good. 252, [4] pages. Cover has some wear. Signed by the author on the title page. Robert Barnard (23 November 1936 - 19 September 2013) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He went on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories. Barnard said that his favorite crime writer was Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie. Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement. Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard published two standalone novels and two alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age. Opera singers are often described as being larger than life, and certainly this is true of Gaylene Ffrench. Her appetites-for men, for food, for attention-are gargantuan, and her ability to irritate is similarly outsized. So when someone electrocutes the bombastic Australian contralto, few tears are shed at the Northern Opera company. In fact, most of the company members are dancing a jig, and it falls on Superintendent Nichols to determine which of them might have helped Gaylene along to her just reward. The black tenor tired of being the butt of Gaylene's bigotry? The soprano weary of jealous whispers in her ears? Gaylene's many bedroom conquests, all anxious to avoid a repeat performance? With so many potential suspects, Nichols has his hands full, but Barnard and his readers have a deliciously malicious good time. 'The wryest wit and most scathing satire' "Chicago Sun-Times" 'One of the deftest stylist in the field. . . goes about it with a quietly malicious sense of humor' "New York Times Book Review"