THE TRILL IS GONE / A Blanchard House Mystery

Violist Althea Stewart and best friend, cellist and soprano Grace Sullivan, are private music teachers bewildered by the incompetence of the new public school music teacher, Shadiyah Kassar. When she turns up as the soprano soloist in the local production of Handel's oratorio "Hercules" they are horrified to realize that Shadiyah is completely tone deaf, as well as anti-social. Delilah Cantwell, head of music in the Kirkland School System, has hired this beautiful young Pakistani woman, fresh from The Royal Conservatory of Toronto, to teach music and to sing the role of Iole based on her resume alone. Now everyone involved must face the disastrous consequences. When the world's worst soprano fails to show up for the performance and Grace steps in to sing in her stead, there is short-lived relief, that is until Shadiyah's body is found in the parking lot after the concert. Only a week before, another young soprano in the choir, Helen Etheridge, had been found hanging in her home. Both women had been seen talking heatedly in the church parking lot only hours before Helen's suicide. Could there be a connection?


Althea has been seeing Harry Demetrious, a Kirkland, WA police detective, ever since they met after a murder at Althea's and Grace's home and music school, Blanchard House six months before. Harry keeps hinting about a marriage proposal, and Althea is contemplating her choices. Meanwhile Grace and newly divorced bassist Emile Girard of the Seattle Symphony have become a couple, but his teenage kids are doing everything they can to drive a wedge between them.


When Shadiyah Kassar's twin brother Hafiz arrives from Pakistan to claim the body, things become strangely complicated. No one wants to say terrible things about a dead woman to her brother, no matter how true, especially not at the Indian Feast Althea has catered at Blanchard House in his honor. Althea is more than intrigued by the details of his and his sister's life stories, and she dedicates herself to getting to the bottom of things in between teaching and performing and making mouth-watering dinners for her friends and, of course, Harry Demetrious.


Althea, to Harry's dismay, has earned a reputation for getting involved in dangerous scenarios, such as recently saving a beautiful Ukrainian ballerina from the Russian mob, and sending the young woman to LA for a possible future as a professional dancer in Hollywood. When she returns unexpectedly and shows up on Althea's doorstep while awaiting her green card, Althea feels obligated to invite her to stay. Teodora Vichy, ever grateful, soon becomes an invaluable member of the household.


Conrad Bailey and Cordula Schneider, two old and dear friends of Althea and Grace, worldly and never-married musicians, have finally found love while visiting their friends at Blanchard House and are ready to settle down together. The women plan a lavish dinner party to celebrate the engagement. Things take a grim turn at the end of the evening as music meets murder in this tale of jealousy, cultural clashes, pride, and deceit. And let's not forget romance.