Shattered Rhythms: A Lil Ritchie Mystery

Portland, Maine, private detective Lil Ritchie, a frustrated guitarist, loves the idea of guarding Andre Ledoux, a great jazzman, when his life is threatened, but the fun and the music stop with a sudden murder

More travelogue than mystery, this lesbian private detective story begins as Maine's music-loving PI, Lil Ritchie, is hired by bass player Ernie West to find his group's legendary guitarist Andre Ledoux. Before disappearing, ex-addict Andre, acting as though he were on a bad trip, stole money from his sister and then skipped town. Although Lil easily locates Andre at his Aunt Eulalie's house in Maine, she can't get him to tell her what's wrong, although he does agree to rejoin the band. When Andre and the band surreptitiously cross the border for the Montreal Jazz Festival, Lil follows and persuades Andre to let her hang around the band as protection. Despite this precaution, Andre is murdered and Lil, feeling responsible, hunts for his killer. She discovers that Aunt Eulalie has also been attacked and manages to find a few clues before the old woman dies. Long descriptive passages of the Maine countryside and the drives to and from Montreal further blunt the suspense of this thinly plotted story.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

After tracing missing jazz guitarist Andr‚ Ledoux to his Aunt Eulalie's at the request of his bassist Ernie West, Portland p.i. Lil Ritchie goes looking for him again on her own hook, this time finding him and his band in Montreal. Andr‚ is vague about why he keeps cutting out, but he lets Lil hang on, disguised as a reporter, through the Montreal Jazz Festival (``the next few days,'' Lil says, not for the first time, ``were something out of an old dream for me''), where ``the greatest triumph of his life'' is spoiled by his murder. Even more shocking, somebody's attacked Aunt Eulalie, who only has time to accuse ``the demon on the TV'' before she dies too. Luckily, Lil, who's an engagingly low-profile lesbian heroine but not much of a detective, recognizes a phone number on a telltale matchbook--and that's all, folks. So dominated by Lil's affection and grief for Andr‚ (she confronts the killer with the annihilating accusation, ``You killed pure and sweet music, and no one--no one--has that right'') that it's less a mystery than a three-day wake. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.