Book Reviews of Trouble in the Brasses

A tricky puzzle of a mystery with strong comic elements and mild romance.

This is one of my favorite in the Royal Mountie Detective Inspector Madoc Rhys series by Charlotte MacLeod AKA Alisa Craig. Madoc comes from a very musically talented family, after all his father is a famed orchestra conductor, his brother a world renowned opera singer, his mother a very charming and tough lady who soothes her husband's temper when his highly mischevious and high strung musicians get out of hand, and then there is Madoc who has a tin ear. Madoc is surprised when his parents request him to come to investigate some "trouble in the brasses" of the orchestra. Murder of one of the brass players on stage at the performance has Madoc traveling with the main orchestra members when they fly to their next performance. The plane crashes leaving the group making do in an isolated "old west" type recreated town shut down for the winter. More murder and mayhem follows, until Madoc can solve the motive and the murderer.

This series set in Canada is less well known than her books set at a fictional agricultural college in New England, but if anything it is even goofier. It also offers a wider variety of settings and characters. There are not a lot of these books so get them when you can.

The description of life among orchestra members is a hoot! Didn't know there was so much going on! M'ann

great DI Madoc series of Charlotte MacLeod/Ailsa Craig.

As always with MacLeod's work, a good mystery spiced up with humor.

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