Duet for Piano & Chisel

By Joslyn Chase

New spin on an old art form. Criminals beware.

She's a concert pianist, classically trained and touched by tragedy. He's a sculptor, learning how to live again after a traumatic brain injury.

Each damaged by circumstance and struggling to rise from the ashes, they join forces to solve the crime after witnessing a terrible disaster that turned out to be more than mere accident.

Piano meets chisel in a bravura performance that will keep you guessing to the end. Don't miss it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joslyn Chase
• Release date: Dec 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393128410

Joslyn Chase

Joslyn Chase is a prize-winning author of mysteries and thrillers. Any day she can send readers to the edge of their seats, chewing their fingernails to the nub and prickling with suspense, is a good day in her book. Joslyn's story, "Cold Hands, Warm Heart," was chosen by Amor Towles as one of The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Fiction River, Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem, Mystery Magazine, and Pulphouse Fiction, among others. Known for her fast-paced fiction, Joslyn's books are full of surprising twists and delectable turns. You will find her riveting novels most anywhere books are sold. Joslyn's love for travel has led her to ride camels through the Nubian desert, fend off monkeys on the Rock of Gibraltar, and hike the Bavarian Alps. But she still believes that sometimes the best adventures come in getting the words on the page and in the thrill of reading a great story. Join the growing group of readers who’ve discovered the thrill of Chase! Sign up at joslynchase.com and get VIP access to great bonuses, like your free copy of No Rest: 14 Tales of Chilling Suspense, as well as updates and first crack at new releases. See you there!

Book preview

Duet for Piano & Chisel

A collaboration mystery featuring Riley Forte & David Peeler

Joslyn Chase

Contents

Author's Note

Duet for Piano & Chisel

Sample from Steadman's Blind

More books by Joslyn Chase

About the Author

Copyright

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Author's Note

This story is a collaboration mystery, combining characters from two of my series who meet by chance, hit it off, and find their skill sets complement each other, enhancing their crime-solving abilities when they work as a team.

Riley Forte and Detective Nate Quentin hail from the world of Nocturne In Ashes, and you’ll find David Peeler and Robyn Vaughan introduced in Death of a Muse.

I hope you enjoy their collaboration, adding your own skills to theirs as you read Duet for Piano & Chisel.

Joslyn Chase

Duet for Piano & Chisel

In her travels as a concert pianist, Riley had visited Spain six or seven times. She’d worn a polka-dotted dress and danced the Sevillana during Feria. She’d caught handfuls of pelted candy at the Three Kings’ Day parade and gone tapas hopping until dawn. Once, she’d even climbed to the top of a craggy rock in Tarifa and looked across to Africa before rappelling down the cliff-face and nearly breaking an ankle.

But she’d never been to a bullfight.

Now, watching the man with the scarlet cloth, she could almost feel the rumble of the ground vibrating under clashing hooves as they raged toward the swinging cape. Not more than ten feet in front of her, the man holding the cloth danced out his convincing presentation, wielding the cape with fierce concentration, brows drawn together on his forehead, a glimmer of arrogance in his eyes. Riley felt both fascination and embarrassment, but she couldn’t look away.

The most compelling feature of the spectacle was that it took place on the polished marble floor of the Mackenzie mansion on the shores of Washington’s Lake Sammamish, off I-90. The tinkle of champagne glasses and murmured conversation punctuated by bursts of laughter swirled around Riley. Strings of colored Christmas lights festooned the walls and a twelve-foot Noble fir, decked with tinsel and ornaments, stood sentinel over the gathered party.

Most of the guests in their cocktail finery hadn’t noticed the man in the corner stamping his feet and flourishing the blood-red muleta as if a roaring applause spurred him on. Those who had, watched with interest or thinly veiled derision.

No one stepped forward to put an end to the display.

With a satiny rustle, a woman arrived at Riley’s shoulder and spoke into her ear. It’s called Utilization Behavior. Be a dear and hold these for me, won’t you?

She handed Riley two flutes half-filled with pale champagne and stepped toward the man, gently taking the cape from his fingers and returning it to the hook from whence it came, next to an ornate matador’s costume and an elaborate sword made of Toledo steel. A dazed look crossed the man’s face, as if he’d just woken from a dream. It was followed by a wash of red as he noticed his audience.

The woman—Riley recognized her as Robyn Vaughan, the concert pianist known for her mastery of Mozart—squeezed his hand. He gave a self-conscious shrug and exited down the hall toward the powder room. Robyn spread a defiant smile over the onlookers, smoothed the skirt of her designer gown, and returned to Riley’s side, retrieving the flutes and taking a sip from one of them.

Let’s count ourselves lucky he didn’t pull down the sword, she said, her lips twisting in a wry grimace. David lost a small piece of his brain to a surgeon’s knife a few years back and it changed him in many ways. Utilization Behavior—or UB, as it’s called by the men in white coats—is a neurological disorder that presents its sufferers with an irresistible compulsion to handle objects, using them in an appropriate manner, but not always in the appropriate venue or moment. It’s given David quite a lot of grief since the surgery. Let’s not mention it when he comes back.

Of course, Riley said. A server appeared, bearing a silver tray with