Murder Duet

I felt like I was plodding through this book. I was just about to put it down, when Michael discovered the baby on his doorstep. That was intriguing for awhile and then it became a ponderous plot line and I wasn't sure what the purpose was. The book was much too long to keep the suspense going. The long intricate sections about music were interesting but didn't really move the story along. I'm not excited about reading another book by this author. Also do people really scribble on paper with burned matches? That was a new one for me.

So continues the murder mysteries of Israeli policeman Michael Ohayon. It has been two years since our last adventure with him. In the meantime he has been away from the force, studying law. Upon his return he becomes entangled in a murder with a family twist. Murder Duet starts with Ohayon wanting to spend a quiet holiday alone, listening to music in his apartment. His solitude is broken when he hears the cries of an infant in the basement of his apartment building. Abandoned in a cardboard box the baby girl is barely a month old and for some reason Ohayon takes it upon himself to care for the newborn. This gives Gur an opportunity to show Ohayon's sensitive side and reveal some of his personality outside of work. After finding the show more baby Ohayon meets his neighbor, Nita van Gelden, and develops a relationship with her. That relationship is compromised when Nita's father and brother are murdered and Ohayon is on the case.

Out of all the Gur mysteries I have read this one was my favorite. Even though the character list was extensive I felt it was more manageable than in previous stories. It was refreshing that not everyone had a name or detailed history. Some characters were just "young woman" or "fat Russian." Past Gur books have included a detailed description of an autopsy. This one has a play by play of how a polygraph test works. There is no doubt Gur does her homework! show less

When he finds an abandoned baby on his doorstep and decides to keep her, police officer Michael Ohayon asks a neighbor for assistance. Nita is single with an infant of her own to care for and in order to seem more stable to the Child Welfare Bureau, the two decided to spread the rumor that they are a couple. When Nita’s brother Gabriel, a violinist, is garroted just off-stage during a rehearsal, Michael is assigned to investigate due to his well-known love of classical music and his familiarity with the people involved. Why was Gabi acting so mysteriously before he was killed and why can’t Nita, a cellist, remember where she was at the time? Can Michael put in the hours necessary to solve the case and still convince his case worker show more that he can parent a young infant?

I’ll be honest and admit that I’m finding it difficult to rate and review this one. I like musical mysteries. I’ve even read another musical mystery with the same murder weapon. But I wanted to read this one because I thought the location (Israel) would make it distinctive. It didn’t, really. I did enjoy the musical setting, the trivia and theory and history that was thrown in for color - that was interesting to me. In some scenes I felt the pacing was really good and the dialogue flowed well but in others I would become confused about what was happening or what was being implied. It soon became predictable that if a certain character was present then I would have to reread the scene to digest it – so I know it was the way the author was stylizing the character. The author really invested heavily in a certain red herring and then just let it fade off into nothingness… there was no pay off for it. I felt cheated. Also, the baby situation felt like its own story – not an integrated part of this one. I probably will not be reading any others in this series. show less

As usual, Gur writes a solid mystery, this one with the stakes a little higher since Ohayon manages to fall in love with one of the suspects. The book is full of ruminations about the nature of human relationships and long discussions about classical music theory. I don't know much about music theory, but I've heard enough classical music to understand the arguments, and this book really made me want to learn more about it, which always a good thing. The characters are getting better by the book as they get more and more fleshed out. However, I'm guessing that Ms. Gur had either a child or a grandchild at the time of writing, because there are pages and pages of baby smells and baby foods and this pulled my rating down. Ohayon, whom I show more like because of his clear mind and discerning nature, pretty much becomes a woman (not that I want to trash my own gender), and an indecisive one at that. The baby plot has nothing to do with the overall plot and is very distracting. Ohayon could easily have fallen in love with Nita because of her genius, and reading about his baby worries wore me out quite a bit. There's some weird stuff too, like the Director for the Child Welfare Bureau, who decides that Ohayon wouldn't be a good foster father because of how detectives in detective novels act. I don't think that's how social workers function... If you skip the baby-stuff, though, it's a darn good read! show less

How fun! I picked it up because I thought "Bayta" might be a name from India AND because I thought the instrumental theme might be interesting.

Turns out Gur is an Israeli name and the book is set in Israel, with plenty of surprises. The clues may have been a bit overdrawn, but the layers of themes were surprises in themselves. I'll be checking the library shelves for another "Michael Ohayon Mystery".....

"A Musical Case". Michael Ohayon, Israeli Superintendent of Police, finds a newborn baby girl in his stairwell. Needing help, he asks his upstairs neighbor, who has a five months old baby and who is a cellist. That is how he is introduced to this musical family, a violinst, and a conductor. When their father is found dead, Michael becomes involved professionally.
Somewhat convoluted, not as good as some of this author's earlier police procedures.

Well written novel gives glimpses into the world of Israeli music.