Rhapsody in Red (Preston Barclay Mystery Book 4)

From Publishers Weekly Two professors accused of murder on a Christian college campus must find the killer in a whodunit that plays to the beat of a unique soundtrack. The main character and narrator, Preston Barclay, suffers with musical hallucinations that started when his wife died and music passed from Faith's soul into mine. Repeated references to specific music he's hearing from his internal musicians distracts in this second novel from a war veteran with a Ph.D. in English literature. Barclay's female colleague is Wiccan, hired as part of the university's new policy of inclusion. Her blue gaze burns Preston, but their budding friendship intrigues. Suspended by the administration and suspected by police of killing a fellow professor, evidence mounts against the pair, even as they conduct a risky investigation of their own. While the style is usually witty and sensitive, puns and dialogue are overexplained, and prose tends toward the pedagogical. However, the ending has an unpredictable and satisfying twist, and both characters' journey toward faith will resonate with Christian readers. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. It was a bad day to find a corpse on campus. Preston Barclay is a self-made recluse (and he likes it that way). Teaching college history allows him time to grieve the loss of his pianist wife and find relief from the musical hallucinations that have been playing in his head since her death. But when he and headstrong colleague, Mara Thorn, discover the body of another instructor on campus, Press’s monotonous solitude is shaken up. When the preliminary evidence singles out Press and Mara, they must take some chances, including trusting each other, to build their own defense by bending the rules just a little bit. They form an unlikely alliance to stay ahead of the police, the college’s wary and incompetent administration, and whoever is trying to get away with murder. Or else they both might end up unemployed, behind bars, or worse... About the Author DONN TAYLOR (B.A., University of Mississippi; Ph.D., University of Texas) served in both the Korean and Vietnam War and worked with air reconnaissance in Europe and Asia. For 18 years he taught literature and history of ideas at Wayland Baptist University in Texas and Jamestown (ND) College. He is the author of Rhapsody in Red, The Lazarus File, and Dust and Diamond: Poems of Earth and Beyond. He and his wife live near Houston and have three children and several grandchildren.