She saved Carraigfaire—but can she save her friends?Gethsemane Brown fought off an attack by a sleazy hotel developer who wanted to turn her Irish cottage into a tourist trap. Now she must face a vengeful ghost determined to exact revenge for her murder centuries ago. This ghost’s wrath spares no one—not Gethsemane’s students, Inspector Niall O’Reilly, fellow teacher Frankie Grennan, or a group … Grennan, or a group of ghost hunters descended on Dunmullach to capture proof ghosts exist.
Proof Gethsemane has to quash to keep Eamon, her resident ghost and friend, from becoming an internet sensation.
As if a spiteful specter wasn’t bad enough, a crooked music reviewer turns up dead in the opera house orchestra pit, a famous composer is arrested for the crime, and Gethsemane must team up with a notorious true-crime author to clear his name.
If she doesn’t, friends will die, a ghost she cares about will never know peace, and she’ll star in a final act gruesome enough for any opera.
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KILLING IN C SHARP by Alexia Gordon | A Henery Press Mystery. If you like one, you’ll probably like them all.
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I loved it! This is my favourite so far in the series! Don’t get me wrong, I love all the books! This is a must read series! I can’t wait for the next book!
African-American classical musician Gethsemane Brown is an award winning secondary-school honors orchestra instructor in Ireland. She also shares the cottage she lives in with her best friend, Eamon, who happens to be the ghost of a renowned composer and concert pianist. In this third book in the series, a ghost hunting TV show and a true crime writer converge on the town and the cottage. At the same time an orchestra composer in need of career revival is preparing to premiere his newest opera at the local opera house and is teaching a master’s course for Gethsemane’s students. A second, vengeful ghost appears on the scene, out for blood and putting Gethsemane’s students and friends in danger. Oh, and there’s a very human murder as well.
I really enjoyed this book. I love that Gethsemane is intelligent and capable. The friendship and banter between Gethsemane and Eamon is wonderful. The cast of characters is interesting and the mystery is well-plotted and fast moving. You can enjoy this book without reading the earlier books in the series but I would recommend starting at the beginning.
If you enjoy mysteries with interesting settings, fun characters, and ghosts I recommend this novel.
I have really grown to love the Gethsemane Brown Cozy Mystery Series and, after reading KILLING IN C SHARP, think that each book is better than the last.
In KILLING IN C SHARP, we find Gethsemane fresh off the events of the previous book. Hoping to be able to settle back to normal (but what is normal since she moved to Ireland?), she is disappointed to find out that her landlord, and resident ghost Eamon’s nephew, has invited a television ghost hunting group to investigate the cottage. In addition to “hiding” Eamon, she must deal with a guest composer who has come to town to premier his new opera based on a centuries old legend. Gethsemane deflects the TV crew to the opera house, but things get out of control when the ghost from the legend is released and the curse attached to her makes people fall ill, not to mention the dead body found in the orchestra pit. Unethical music critic Bernard Stolz made enemies everywhere he went, and there is no shortage of suspects for his murder, but composer Aed Devlin is arrested for the crime. Gethsemane is sure Aed is innocent so she joins forces with her nemesis, true crime writer Venus James, to find the real killer, contain Maja and end the curse before some of the ill die, and keep Eamon from being exposed.
Gordon does a great job of taking unbelievable circumstances and making the premise of the tale totally believable. Do readers need to be open minded about ghosts and curses? Yes, but it is so much fun. KILLING IN C SHARP incorporates some of my favorite things into the story – opera, ghosts, Ireland – and makes for an entertaining, compelling read. The murder mystery is well developed and interesting, but it is the thread involving Maja that really shines. There are secrets, false identities, danger, and sacrifice within the book’s pages. Sounds like it could be its own opera, right? The suspects all have viable motives, and I did not have it all figured out until close to the end. The resolution is tragic in its own right. My only quibble with the book concerns a character’s sacrifice at the end of the book. I just do not feel like Eamon would be so fine with the consequence and result of this sacrifice.
Gethsemane is a great protagonist and amateur sleuth. She is strong minded and intelligent, yet also logical and snarky. I think she and I could be friends. The other recurring characters, including Inspector Niall and child genius Saoirse, are well developed and unique. I have even grown to like Venus.
I greatly enjoyed KILLING IN C SHARP and recommend it to any cozy reader, especially those who enjoy a pronounced paranormal theme.
I received an ARC of this title from the publisher and voluntarily shared my thoughts here.
Killing in C Sharp by Alexia Gordon ~ A delightful cozy mystery series with a paranormal element. And each book Gethsemane Brown has an adventure and a mystery to solve that always involves a ghost. These cute quirky storylines are quite humorous. I recommend this for all fans of cozy mysteries.
I had seen references to this series and was intrigued.
The story lived up to my interest.
A seemingly down to earth music teacher happens to have as a friend a composer who died 25 years ago under questionable circumstances.
Add a ghost hunting crew (who would dearly love to catch said composer on their equipment), a premiere of an opera that might just be cursed, a slimy journalist, and dead bodies.
Quite an exciting mix.
Killing in C Sharp is the third book in the Gethsemane Brown Mystery series.
Gethsemane and her resident ghost and friend, Eamon McCarthy are back once again for an entertaining read.
Gethsemane has recently blocked a hotel developer from purchasing the house where she is living and turning it into a tourist trap. Now to obtain some cash, Billy McCarthy, nephew of Eamon and owner of the house, has convinced a ghost hunter reality TV show to come and tape a show. Gethsemane is beside herself over this as she doesn’t need the attention that something like this will generate. Eamon is not happy either.
Also on Gethsemane plate is the arrival at the boy’s school where she teaches will be the noted classical composer, Aed Devlin. After having an unscrupulous reporter wrote a scathing review of Devlin’s work, his career crashed and burned. Devlin has come to the school to put the finishing touches on an opera he is about to complete. His opera is based on a Hungarian legend about a noblewoman, Maja, that was entombed in a castle wall and a curse was put on the firstborn son of those who were connected to the castle. Gethsemane and Eamom are also having to deal with the appearance of Venus James, an author, who wrote a scathing book about Eamon, alleging he had something to do with his wife’s death and his having committed suicide.
Soon after Devlin arrives in town, Bernard Stolz, the freelance writer whose article ruined Devlin’s career, also arrives. One evening at the local pub they have words, but everything seems to have calmed. Then at a rehearsal, which the ghost hunter crew is also attending, unexplainable things start happening that point to the Maja curse may actually be real. When the music concludes, Stolz’s body is found in the orchestra pit and Devlin ends up being arrested for his murder. Gethsemane believes Devlin is innocent and sets out to do her own investigation. Devlin is the only person he has ruined with his scathing reviews and Gethsemane needs to look at several of these.
I felt the story is a well-plotted story with a wonderful cast of believable characters and Gordon does a great job of weaving the story of Maja’s curse into the present day.
I enjoy listening to classical music and it is very satisfying to find a mystery series centering around it. I will be watching for the next book in the series.
“Killing in C Sharp” earns 5+/5 Ghostly Apparitions…and Murderous Revenge!
So much is going on in Alexa Gordon’s third book that it just may be the best one yet. First, Gethsemane’s plan to thwart the sale of Carriagfaire Cottage has resulted in a hitch…no good dead goes unpunished? Revealing Eamon’s ghost to be “dead and well” may have derailed the lucrative sale, but it has forced Billy McCarthy, owner and Eamon’s living nephew, to contract Ghost Hunters Adventures to investigate paranormal activity…for a good sum of money, of course, and Gethsemane will cooperate or vacate the premise. Second, acclaimed composer Áed Daniels, scheduled to lecture and hold a master class at St. Brenna’s, has written a new opera based on a Hungarian legend fraught with death, shame, revenge…and a curse? Not only would the composer be in jeopardy from a thirteenth-century curse, but anyone who witnesses the production. Third, the composer has a serious conflict with a music critic who publicized a plagiarism claim that turned out to not be true, but instead of retracting his report, he doubled down with claims of an affair that led to a young woman’s suicide. Then, there’s a true crime author arriving hoping to revise her popular book after its claims had been debunked, Gethsemane’s continued friendship with her ghost roommate, and…another murder? Yes, this is the best book…ever!
Alexa Gordon has become a favorite…a big favorite! This third book delightfully entertains with a paranormal twist realistically incorporated into the storyline. It is not juvenile hocus-pocus; the ghosts, ghost hunters, curses, and unexplained events and smells all work well. Alexa’s descriptions and dialogue help give the reader a true sense of the surroundings, emotions, and personalities to get anyone invested in this series. Newbies need not shy away since enough background and character connections are provided without spoilers, but I highly recommend all three books be read in order…you wouldn’t start with dessert in your three-course meal, would you? I greatly enjoyed the audio versions of book one and two so well that I can actually hear the Irish brogues in my head. That was fun!