Two murders in a nicely symmetrical structure. An English opera company is putting on Die Meistersinger at Oxford. Edwin Shorthouse, the bass baritone, is down to play Sachs. Shorthouse has a voice like an angel, but all his other qualities come from elsewhere. Spurned by Elizabeth Harding, he plots revenge on her new husband Adam Harding, the tenor who plays Walther. Shorthouse also has words with the musical director, George Peacock, and makes a clumsy attempt on the virtue of Judith Haynes, a girl from the chorus. Nobody is particularly upset when Shorthouse turns up dead, but it is the nature of the operation -- a classic locked-room puzzle -- that intrigues Gervase Fen.
There are more rehearsals, gunplay and another death before Fen sorts it all out. Shorthouse's murder is neatly explained but a bit thin on motive; the second killing, by contrast, seemed strongly motivated but fairly implausible. But Crispin and Fen bring it all off neatly in the end, and this edition also has an Introduction by Michael Innes -- what more could you want?
Jon.
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