Death in D Minor

The second volume featuring Gethsemane Brown has the talented musician, an American living in Ireland, trying to locate the friendly ghost from the first book, Murder in G Major, to discourage a crass American developer from buying her historic (rental) cottage. She inadvertently wakes up another specter, an 18th-century sea captain who reluctantly offers his perspective on Patience Freeman, a free African American child in 18th-century Williamsburg, VA. Patience stitched a schoolgirl sampler owned by an Irish art collector. Soon the rare sampler is missing, the art collector is dead, and Gethsemane and Jackson, her visiting brother-in-law, a textile curator, are the top suspects. Gethsemane, however, identifies a plethora of suspects as she steps into the local art world to clear their names. Reader Helen Duff delivers a likable Irish accent but does not offer enough vocal contrasts to identify the many Irish characters—police, art dealers, servants—and perseverance is needed to follow the plot. She portrays the crude developer as the stereotype he is, with a flat drawl. Gethsemane's voice is attractively low, with a believable Southern accent. However, even main characters Gethsemane and Jackson are occasionally indistinguishable.