The Memorial Hall Murder (1978)

A bomb goes off in Memorial Hall at Harvard during a rehearsal for the Messiah. The conductor is found somewhat mutilated and dead. There are bombings occurring in other parts of New England, but the group responsible for those did not claim responsibility for this one. Who is responsible for the bombing? Are things as they seem? Homer Kelly, a visiting professor at Harvard, gets involved because of his previous assistance to police in their investigations and at the request of one of the professor's students. This is an engaging installment in the Homer Kelly series. With each chapter prefaced by parts of the score and with the author's own illustrations, one can't go wrong with this one. ( )

Being a musician, there is nothing better than mixing music and murder! I ran across this author when I read Divine Inspiration, where the murder was involved in the death of an organist - I being one, was fascinated. Langton pulled another great book with murder and choral music - in this book, the selection was Handel's Messiah being performed by a choral group at Harvard. I enjoyed this book! Homer Kelly, a retired investigator, has become one of my favorite fumbling characters - reminiscent of Columbo! This book was definitely a page turner, and would highly recommend to any of you mystery readers! ( )

Murder in a Harvard basement--affectionate, compelling, obvious, improbable--all in one ( )