Looking for Chet Baker: An Evan Horne Mystery (Evan Horne Mysteries) - Hardcover

Moody, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802733689 ISBN 13: 9780802733689

Publisher: Walker Books, 2002

Synopsis

The trumpet was silenced, but the questions remain

Evan Horne's comeback at the keyboard has brought him to England, where he hopes he can concentrate on his music and not think about crimes. But his friend Ace Buffington, who's led him into trouble before, shows up with a problem: Ace has a contract to write a biography of the late trumpeter Chet Baker, and since Evan's going on to Amsterdam, too...

Chet Baker died on the sidewalk in front of an Amsterdam hotel in 1988; whether he jumped, slipped, or was pushed has never been determined. With his arrival at the hotel, Evan discovers that Ace―who was staying in Chet's room―is missing. The only thing Evan finds is his briefcase and notes. Now he has no choice. To find Ace, Evan will have to dig into the mysterious death of Chet Baker...and that takes him into a world he'd rather not visit.

Bill Moody's background as a musician and his talents as a writer have made the Evan Horne mysteries a cult favorite. Investigating the death of Chet Baker, who has a cult of his own, brings out the best in both the author and his pianist sleuth, Evan Horne.

About this title

About the Author:

Bill Moody is a professional jazz drummer and noted music critic. Other titles in his Evan Horne series include Bird Lives!, The Sound of the Trumpet, Death of a Tenor Man, and Solo Hand. He lives in northern California.

From Publishers Weekly:

"I'm a pushover for minor keys, minor chords, minor blues. Always have been," says jazz pianist and amateur detective Evan Horne. "I was drawn to those players and composers for whom minor keys and blues-drenched creations were a way of life." A blues-drenched creation aptly sums up Moody's sad and mellow Evan Horne mystery, his fifth (after 1999's Bird Lives!), in which his suffering hero, still recovering from the aftereffects of the violence of earlier cases, decides to get away and takes some gigs in Europe. In London, Horne meets an old friend, Ace Buffington. An English professor who needs to publish one more book to achieve tenure, Ace wants Horne to help him research real-life jazz great Chet Baker. In 1988, Baker fell (or was pushed) from his hotel window in Amsterdam, i.e., he died "under mysterious circumstances." Horne has no interest in more detective work, but when he gets to Amsterdam, he discovers that Ace has disappeared. Since the police express little interest in finding the missing professor, Horne is obliged to go looking for his buddy himself. Ace's trail parallels that of Chet Baker's last days, so Horne has to learn a lot more about Baker, his legendary talent, his tragic addiction to drugs. Moody does a wonderful job of re-creating the man and his times. For anyone interested in jazz, this is a must. For anyone just interested in a good mystery, this is just what the coroner ordered. Agent, Philip G. Spitzer. (Mar. 13)Forecast: As a jazz drummer and respected critic in the music world (Howard Mandel, president of the Jazz Journalists Association, and Dick Conte, of San Francisco's KCSM/KKSF, supply blurbs), the author is well positioned to push this latest jazz mystery to the obvious crossover audience.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0802733689
• ISBN 13: 9780802733689
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256