Melody For Murder (A Bertie Bigelow Mystery)

After her husband’s death nine months earlier, 39-year-old Choir Director Bertie Bigelow reluctantly finds herself accompanying Judge Theophilous Green to an upscale New Year’s Eve society gala for elite Afro-Americans in Chicago. After the gala, the randy Judge Green returns the writings of Bertie’s dead husband, who’d been working on an illuminating book about prominent blacks in the area. The next morning, she discovers that the judge was murdered shortly after she left his apartment. When one of her students is arrested for the crime Bertie feels it’s unfounded, and promises to do her own investigating to clear him. What follows is a series of tragedies and events that puts the heroine in the direct line of fire. 

A truly delightful read! Carolyn Marie Wilkins has penned a fabulously entertaining, cozy mystery that’s sure to keep readers eagerly turning the pages of this beautifully written story. Bertie and the supporting cast are all well-developed characters, easily identifiable: from the single and sexually-free-spirited girlfriend, Ellen, to the deceased husband’s sexy, but very married, business partner, “Mac”. The manner in which the otherwise intelligent college professor’s indiscreet snooping, to the point of putting herself, and others in danger, had this reader longing to reach inside the pages and shake some sense into Bertie. Yes, even knowing that without it, there would have been no story. It didn’t, however, distract from the exceptional storytelling abilities of Ms. Wilkins. What a gem of a series by a talented author!

Lori Leger