AWARD WINNING!
2024 Maine Literary Award Finalist for Crime Fiction
Available from:
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*If your bookstore or library isn’t carrying DISSONANCE, tell them it’s available to order from Ingram.
About DISSONANCE
Allegra Brewster, cellist and newly minted arts administrator, finds herself torn between keeping her job with the SummerFest Symphony and her loyalty to its musicians. The tension rises to a higher level when she discovers the death of a central person in the conflict. Many people with ill feelings toward the victim are potential murder suspects, but it is her father upon whom the police focus their attention.
Set at a fictional summer music festival in coastal Maine, Dissonance explores the struggle between a nonprofit arts board and its musicians, wealthy summer people and locals, a besotted suitor and the former girlfriend he betrayed, and a young woman’s faith in her own detective skills and the obvious fact that someone close to her committed murder.
Filled with music references (and accompanied by a Spotify playlist), Dissonance brings the reader into the world of a summer orchestra, its musicians and supporters, and the small town they occupy.
What readers say:
“Barbara Burt builds strong emotional involvement, as she not only explores the mystery behind the murder but also Allie’s relationship with the people in her small town... Dissonance has the kind of mysterious suspense that makes it engaging, and fans of the genre will enjoy reading this story.”
—Reviewed by Vincent Dublado for Readers' Favorite
Barbara Burt dedicates A Novel of Music and Murder “For all the readers who love music and all the musicians who love books…” She could add And for everyone who loves a good, well-written mystery! Dissonance is superb. The clash between the logical Board of Directors and the creative musicians naturally leads to threats of violence. While solving a murder, Allie is attracted to both a former boyfriend and a handsome new assistant conductor. Dissonance is fun to read whether you are a musician or a reader! 5 Stars. —Reviewed by Kathleen Hughes on Amazon
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A musician, writer, sailor, editor, educator, nonprofit executive and board member, and long-time Mainer, Barbara Burt now lives in Georgia (with summers in Maine) with her husband, two daughters, one granddaughter, and two dogs.
Coming in SPRING 2024, the next book in the series: