Murder Fortissimo

When a terrible, awful woman dies by suspicious means, is there any reason not to let sleeping killers lie? Christiane Marchant met her bloody end when a large, heavy euphonium plunged off a balcony and onto her head. Everyone at the Firstone Grange residential home agreed it was a terrible accident. But nobody was going to miss the hateful Mrs. Marchant. Not her beleaguered daughter, not the exasperated staff, nor fellow guests at the home—and especially not those she was blackmailing.

But retired headmistress Harriet Quigley, a new resident at the luxury lodgings, believes in getting to the truth, no matter how terrible. As she begins to ask questions, her sympathetic nature elicits more than a few confessions from the others—all involving shameful secrets and long-buried dark deeds that Christiane had threatened to expose. But who among them was forced to resort to murder?