FATAL SCORES

Could music be the key to the mystery of a young activist’s murder?

At the season opener for the Asheville Tourists baseball team, private investigator Sam Blackman and attorney Hewitt Donaldson witness a bitter confrontation between contractor Ken Stokes and Luke Kirkpatrick of the Kirkgate Paper company. Ken accuses Luke of excluding Wilma Dykeman, beloved local author and conservationist, from the upcoming Asheville Luminaries Festival, which is sponsored by Kirkgate Paper—the same company Wilma accused of polluting the Pigeon River. A few days later, Nakayla Robertson, Sam's partner in life and work, gets a worried phone call from Ken’s pregnant wife, Lynne; Ken hasn't come home, and Lynne thinks he might have been collecting water samples for the River Watchers, for whom he monitors toxin levels. Sam and Nakayla head down to the river to look for Ken only to find his dead body. Soon after Sam tells Lynne he'll investigate Ken's death, he gets a visit from Ted Kirkpatrick, Luke's father, who wants Sam to probe the crime in order to clear the Kirkpatrick family of suspicion. Paul Clarkson, a Moog synthesizer expert and fellow River Watcher, provides info about both pollution and the Luminaries Festival, whose headliner, temperamental musician William Ormandy, happens to be Ted’s alibi. Through seven previous cases, the author has developed an easy rapport between recurring characters. Though his front-loading of suspects and incidents causes the story to sag a bit in the middle, a death threat and a suspicious package complicate the case smartly.

An amiable cozy that should delight the Asheville Visitors Bureau.