Death on the Down Beat

By: Sebastian Farr

Narrated by: Simon Mattacks

As a rousing Strauss piece is reaching its crescendo in Maningpool Civic Hall, the talented yet obnoxious conductor Sir Noel Grampian is shot dead in full view of the Municipal Orchestra and the audience.

It was no secret that he had many enemies - musicians and music critics among them - but to be killed mid-flow suggests an act of the coldest calculation. Told through the letters and documents sent by DI Alan Hope to his wife as he puzzles through the dauntingly vast pool of suspects and scant physical evidence in the case, this is an innovative and playful mystery underscored by the author's extensive experience of the highly-strung world of music professionals.

First published in 1941, this new edition gives Farr's only crime novel its long-deserved encore.

©1941, 2022 Estate of Eric Walter Blom, Martin Edwards (P)2023 Soundings

one of the lesser successful crime stories read/heard..

Was interested by the musical angle of the story, but the gushing style of narrator's communications with his wife, thanking her for her "invaluable feminine insights" without much explaing what they were, condescending attitude toward musicians he interviewed, thinking of himself as "Poirot" all put me off this failure of a crime story. Plus, having a story with a plan of orchestra as one of the keys to the murder doesn't work for an audiobook, does it?;)