Saving a Ghost in “Killing in C Sharp”

Share

Killing in C Sharp

In Killing in C Sharp by Alexia Gordon, musical virtuoso Dr. Gethsemane Brown, who teaches music at St. Brennan’s, an all- boys’ school in Dunmullach, Ireland, is facing visits from two different groups of people. First, St. Brennan’s is hosting Aed Devlin, who is trying to make a comeback in his formerly brilliant composing career as he debuts a new opera at his alma mater. Then, Gethsemane’s landlord is allowing a television show, Ghost Hunting Adventures, to search at the historic cottage the musician rents. The paranormal experts want to locate the ghost of Eamon McCarthy, the greatest composer of the 20th century, whom Gethsemane vindicated of murdering his wife and then committing suicide in Murder in G Major. Since Eamon actually does live as a ghost at Carraigfaire, the cottage he owned during life, Gethsemane has an incentive to get the group out of her house before they discover the truth and lead hordes of curiosity seekers to Dunmullach and Carraigfaire.

As Gethsemane and Father Tim Keating make plans to distract the ghost hunters with the 13th century Hungarian curse of Maja Zoltán that Aed is featuring in his new opera, the music reviewer whose lies destroyed Aed’s career shows up in Dunmullach, causing a huge stir. Bernard Stoltz got caught demanding bribes for good reviews and destroying the careers of those who didn’t pay up. So when Bernard gets murdered during a rehearsal for the new opera, Aed falls under suspicion. And in the meantime, the vengeful ghost of Maja Zoltán shows up and causes destruction and terror. Now, despite Gethsemane’s earlier desire to keep Eamon out of the way of the ghost hunters, she needs his help to fight this evil spirit and solve the murder of the corrupt reviewer.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Killing in C Sharp, which had an interesting plot and highly creative characters. I would typically not enjoy a book with as much paranormal activity as this one has, in particular the evil spirit, but I really had a good time. Though the character of Eamon is a ghost, we have come to love him as a regular character as well as any other character in the book. I did find it curious how many people in the community are aware of Eamon’s ghost, as well as the presence of other ghosts, since all the paranormal cozy mysteries I have read feature just one ghost whom only one person can see or knows about. The plot keeps things moving and is very exciting. I also liked that several cultures have converged upon Dunmullach, including the Southern African American culture of Gethsemane, the other American cultures of the ghost hunters, and the Irish culture of the locals.

Helen Duff performs the audio edition of this book and does an impressive job of making Killing in C Sharp a delightful listening experience. This book features characters from different regions of the U.S. and U.K., and Duff shifts effortlessly among the many accents, making each seem highly realistic. Duff makes each character seem alive through her choice of voices that perfectly suit each one. I listen to hundreds of audiobooks each year, and this stands out as one of the most impressive of 2018.

I appreciated the experience of listening to Killing in C Sharp. It was a very fun book that kept me drawn to the adventure. If you haven’t listened to or read Murder in G Major and Death in D Minor, then I recommend reading the first two books before this one, especially the first. And the quality of the audiobook is so incredible that I highly recommend the audiobook version of this book. I give it five stars!

To purchase this book for yourself, click here on Amazon.

Share

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.