Orchestrated Murder An Iowa Murder Mystery

This is another in the series of murder mysteries published by the public radio station KUNI. The story is serially written by several authors, where each one writes a chapter. There is a fundamental story line that must be followed and the chapters are then edited into a book form. With nineteen different authors, there are times when there are some glitches in the continuity, but overall the plot flows fairly smoothly. The basic plot is that a frustrated musician believes he is destined to be a great conductor. Lacking the ability to achieve this goal on the basis of his talent, he begins killing the conductors of symphony orchestras in Iowa. The FBI agent assigned to the case is on his way down, having too close and frequent a relationship with alcohol. Even the calling in of other law enforcement resources has no affect; the killer never has a difficult time in executing his next target. That was the weakest point of the plot; the murders take place despite the presence of large numbers of police officers. They are just too easy. The ending is, as is the murderer, one for the psycho file. There is a dramatic conclusion where the murderer finally gets his wish, but by that time he is so demented that the pinnacle of his career is a small down concert where the consequences of his conducting are guffaws from the audience. I found this book to be tolerable; the weaknesses are due to the multiple authors and the fact that many of them do not write mysteries. It was interesting to read the material of those who are musicians by trade. This was especially true for the chapter by Christian Tiemeyer, the former conductor of the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, where I have season tickets.