The Tattletale Waltz
(2026)(The fifth book in the Lottie Reamer Cozy Mystery series)
A novel by Donna Muse
When Lottie Reamer is hired to perform at the Melody Grove Heritage Museum's grand reopening, she expects a polite gala, a polite check, and possibly a polite exit before the canapés run out. What she gets is a power outage, a missing antique music box, a curator clinging to consciousness, and a sheet of handwritten music that smells faintly of bergamot.
The Hargraves Cylinder Music Box has been Melody Grove's quirkiest artifact for over a century — an 1887 marvel rumored to play a melody that exposes whoever steals it. Now it's gone. The four people closest to it all have something to hide, the most obvious suspect is the most obviously innocent, and the only person who can identify the attacker is unconscious — and not getting any safer the longer he stays that way.
Armed with one infuriating melodic clue, an ever-expanding songbook of inappropriate musical numbers, and a librarian best friend whose tactical earplug kit has reached professional grade, Lottie must decode a 19th-century maker's mark, a 30-year-old forgery, and a perpetrator who's a great deal more charming than he ought to be.
Because in Melody Grove, even the music boxes have secrets — and this one's about to sing.
Genre: Mystery
The Hargraves Cylinder Music Box has been Melody Grove's quirkiest artifact for over a century — an 1887 marvel rumored to play a melody that exposes whoever steals it. Now it's gone. The four people closest to it all have something to hide, the most obvious suspect is the most obviously innocent, and the only person who can identify the attacker is unconscious — and not getting any safer the longer he stays that way.
Armed with one infuriating melodic clue, an ever-expanding songbook of inappropriate musical numbers, and a librarian best friend whose tactical earplug kit has reached professional grade, Lottie must decode a 19th-century maker's mark, a 30-year-old forgery, and a perpetrator who's a great deal more charming than he ought to be.
Because in Melody Grove, even the music boxes have secrets — and this one's about to sing.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Donna Muse's The Tattletale Waltz