Book description
Jazz pianist Evan Horne, settled into the San Francisco jazz scene,
takes a gig in Los Angeles, where he's offered his most unusual job yet.
Mega movie star Ryan Stiles hires Evan to teach him to look like he's
playing piano for an upcoming film role. Evan stays at Stiles' lush
Malibu home for the tutoring, but suddenly things go wrong with the
arrogant, spoiled star. Stiles' adversarial relationship with the
paparazzi explodes when a photographers is killed. Was it an accident or
is Stiles himself a suspect? Evan wants out, but Stiles' manager dangles
the opportunity for Evan to score the film if he stays. Stiles is
cleared but when the film begins, another mysterious death occurs, and
somebody is blackmailing the star. With help from his FBI girlfriend,
Andie Lawrence, and Lt. Danny Cooper, Evan launches his own
investigation to help clear Stiles. To further complicate things, Evan's
old nemesis, serial killer Gillian Sims escapes from prison. In
Moody's seventh Evan Horne mystery, the action moves from San Francisco,
now Horne's home base, to Los Angeles, where the jazz pianist and
amateur sleuth accepts an unlikely assignment, teaching movie star Ryan
Stiles, cast in the role of a jazzman, to look like he's playing piano.
What Horne doesn't know until he's accepted the gig is that the movie is
loosely based on Horne's own experiences tracking a serial killer
(2009's Bird Lives!). Angered at being duped, Horne perseveres, lured by
the prospect of composing the music for the film. Matters are further
complicated when Stiles appears implicated in the death of a paparazzi,
and Horne agrees to prove his innocence. Previous entries in the series
have revolved around incidents from jazz history. This one lacks that
engaging backstory, but the fascinating process of teaching an actor to
fake playing the piano gives Moody, a jazz musician himself, another
avenue to doing what he does best, incorporating vividly rendered slices
of a jazzman's life into a satisfying crime story. An agreeable
adventure in a consistently entertaining series. Jazz drummer Bill
Moody has toured and recorded with Maynard Ferguson, Jr. Mance, Jon
Hendricks, and Lou Rawls. He lives in northern California where he hosts
a weekly jazz show. Mr. Moody is the author of many books and short
stories.
