Very strange little mystery. Takes place in Newcastle, England, sometime in the late 18th century. Our protagonist, Charles Patterson, is a harpsichord/violin/organ player and composer. In this book, his chief rival for director of the "band" of "gentlemen" is a Swiss violinist. He is not a sleuth of any sort, but is forced into the role by a serious of misfortunes that all seem to point to him or his rival as the culprits. (As an aside, the structure of the band is interesting, since in this setting, musicians are considered lower than tradesmen in society, and are therefore not ranked among the titled. However, the gentlemen of the area indulge themselves in performing in the band, and taking lessons from the various musicians in town. Thus is a member of the band, yet not in the same class as the majority of them.)

The story outlined above is the "normal" part of the book. Where things get strange is that in this particular setting, the spirits of people who have died are still present. Patterson lives in a boarding house run by a spirit, because no heirs have yet come forward. The spirits are well known, and interact as every other character; the author makes no effort to turn this into a supernatural thriller. In fact, I had trouble remembering sometimes which characters were the ghosts.

The final little oddity of the book is the shift into an alternate world that Patterson occasionally encounters in the vicinity of a particular house in town. I can't go into much detail here to avoid spoilers, but in this other world, he finds that he is far more successful than in his own.

The perpetrator does seem fairly obvious, but the motives are not.

The novel takes some getting used to (what with the spirits and all), but overall I did find it enjoyable. What was particularly of interest to me was the way the chapter headings use music to describe the events of the chapter. That was a particularly fun little play with music and language.