I always love a good old fashion mystery. Murder to music is just such a book. Originally released in the 1950s the novel’s vocabulary and style warms the heart. The story is not unlike most murder mysteries of the time but that’s OK. Reading it felt like slipping into some warm cozy slippers. I highly recommend this book to all those lovers of great mysteries of yesteryears.

"Murder to Music" is an awkward attempt by author Margaret Newman to write a murder mystery in the Agatha Christie pattern. Unfortunately, the narration is cluttered with unnecessary verbiage and run-on sentences; the characters are derivative; the plot is labored, and the dialogue stilted. The situation of a bickering choral group practicing for a big concert may be accurate, but it takes more than that to make readers care about these unpleasant individuals and their problems.

Murder to Music is a delightful classic murder mystery, set in London about 1960. The story revolves around a performance of a choir. Well constructed, it has a likeable heroine, a cast of well described characters, plenty of red herrings, and a satisfying denouement, all the elements of a good mystery.
An especially good antidote to the covid 19 quarantine.

Books set in periods I am unfamiliar with, even more, if they have actually been published in decades before even my parents were born (originally published 1959) usually feel a lot more similar to each other. This one stood out with its content as well as the leading duo! 

This is a police procedural for one half of the book, and the other half shows us the inner working of an orchestra. I do not know one word from another when it comes to western music, so it took me a while to get into my usual stride. The narrative explains specific nuances in a very patient manner to get unfamiliar readers (like me) up to speed. The romance between Delia and Detective Superintendent Hudson is very charmingly done, by spacing their interactions with tasteful blanks. I have not come across such usage of 'time' before, but it was quite entertaining. Delia is part of an orchestra, she is also part of the committee, and their junior conductor is a very harsh man. He makes no friends in putting together something new and well written. This man dies at a very symbolic moment of the music, and the investigation begins immediately. Our detective was part of the audience, this, as well as the fact that he has an 'in' to all the small battles within the group, gives him the required ammunition to come to the solution.

What I found appealing about this was its straightforward simplicity. There are clues, each are followed up. Alibis are found and theories voiced. I came to the correct solution at the same time as the detective which works out well in terms of satisfaction.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but this review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I received this book from Netgalley for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
This time classic crime novels is one of the Uncrowned Queens of Crime Series published by Agora Books.
Organizing a major performance is no mean feat. It takes a dedicated group, cash on hand, supporters and performers of merit who will draw a crowd. When petty disagreements and old humiliations contend with decision making, someone may die in the process. D.S. Simon Hudson is investigating the untimely and public death of the conductor of the Metropolitana Choir. His own girlfriend is part of the choir and needs to be quickly ruled out as a suspect. The deceased has not gained many supporters and the suspect list is long. Will Simon be able to find the culprit in time before his own love is the focus of the investigation?
Excellent addition to the vintage crime novels genre. Highly entertaining!

I really enjoyed this - the use of the Royal Festival Hall as the setting for the murder was really unusual, the characters were well drawn, and the descriptions of the internal politics of the choir were entertaining. There were lots of red herrings and distractions before the final explanation was revealed which made for an interesting read.

I'm more than happy to discover this writer new to me and I loved this story.
Even if it was written in 1959 it aged well and it is still a very pleasant and entertaining novel.
I read in one setting and was fascinated by the well developed cast of characters and the general atmosphere.
The mystery is solid, full of twists and turns, and the solution came as a surprise.
It's a book based on dialogues more than descriptions. You've got the same elements of the detective and it was an interesting mental exercise trying to understand what was the truth and what wasn't.
The characters are well thought and the historical background is vivid and well described.
I would like to read other books by this author as this one was excellent.
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I really enjoyed this one. It was an interesting and convincing setting for a mystery, closest, perhaps to Ngaio Marsh’s theatre settings. I believed in these people and the diversity of what they hoped to get out their membership of the choir. The relationships were well established and maintained, including that between our detective and his girlfriend. I appreciated the matter-of-fact way this was maintained and accepted throughout. A detective with a brain, integrity and commitment in a 1950s mystery is a wonderful thing.

Here is a very confident, and competent, writer, creating an engrossing narrative in a well-established genre, but stepping outside the well-trodden manor house or village setting and insisting on an intelligent, trusting relationship close to the heart of the narrative without sentimentality. As this appears to be the only book she wrote under this pseudonym, and was her first published novel, it would be interesting to see if her style changed in line with her pseudonyms. I hope to have the opportunity to check this out.

Thanks to NetGalley and Agora books for the review copy.

Margaret Newman wrote Murder to Music in 1959 as her first mystery novel. She was a prolific writer and many of her other books are published under Anne Betteridge, Margaret Potter or Anne Melville, in which she wrote historical novels. In this mystery Detective Superintendent Simon Hudson is dating Delia Jones, and gives her a ride to a London Choral Society Meeting. The meetings are fraught with conflict due to the Assistant Conductor, Owen Burr. He is a man who is musically talented but causes people to dislike him intensely.

The characters are a nice touch by Newman. They are very English and have gone through World War II. She has elderly women who have devoted their lives to the Chamber, ambitious young men- very talented, and two sets of couples to add romance. On the night of one of their most ambitious programs, who would ever have predicted murder? The setting is tight but I found some of the lesser characters more developed than Supt. Hudson, which did not make the mystery less interesting because the red herrings flew fast and furious. The end was a surprise to me.

Thanks to Agora Books, Crime Classics and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel, which is a reprint of a mystery first published in 1959. This was a new to me author. I am not sure if she wrote any other mysteries, but this book would be a great beginning to a series.

I really enjoyed this novel. It was very well plotted, the story was fairly fast paced, and it kept me reading when I should have been doing other things. How on earth could a man be murdered while on the stage at a concert, with an audience, an orchestra and a choir looking on? And the second murder...how did it fit in? Were the murders connected? If so how? Newman provides lots of clues., and a few red herrings too. However, I wasn’t perceptive enough to make any sort of guess as to the murderer and the ending was a total surprise to me.

I would definitely read more mysteries by this author.

A detective superintendent in love with a member of the Metropolitana Choir. The conductor of the Metropolitana Choir killed during the last notes of the performance of a brand new Mass. Can he hold onto his girlfriend? Should he hold onto his girlfriend? What is everyone hiding? Detective Superintendent Hudson has to walk a fine line between his professional and personal lives, and it’s not easy. Hint: Think about the least likely suspect. Can you figure it out before Detective Superintendent Hudson? This cozy mystery was first published in 1959, and it’s a nice escape - especially during this crazy, never-ending lockdown. Give it a try. You won’t be sorry.

What a great story from a first time novelist. Although written in 1959 by first time author Margaret Newman, her prose, scripting of the tale and execution is fantastic. I believe this is the only crime story she wrote in her lifetime. What a loss to the world of crime fiction! Definitely an uncrowned Queen of crime fiction.

If you like Christie, Sayers and the like who have been so successful in this genre, then you will not be disappointed. There is murder, love, humour amongst other emotions that provide the perfect recipe for a master storytelling involving DS Simon Hudson who has to try to separate his personal and professional life as his girlfriend becomes one of the suspects.

Lovely way to spend time during lockdown!

Murder to Music, by Margaret Newman, was an enjoyable introduction to a writer whose works I had been entirely unfamiliar with (she also published as Margaret Potter, Anne Melville, and Anne Betteridge, in a variety of genres.) Although the first few pages were only moderately engaging, I was soon drawn in both by the context - a large and skilled amateur choral society in 1950s London – and by the varied characters.

The book will appeal to those who enjoy a classically structured detective story, in which the author provides the reader with enough clues, open and disguised, to form plausible theories about the murderer or murderers, and about his/her/their motivations. The early chapters foreshadow, on multiple clear but not heavyhanded occasions, who will be the victim (first victim, as it proves to be), and hint at why various characters might desire his death. Throughout the story, Newman achieves a reasonable balance of the satisfaction of fulfilled expectations and the surprise of unexpected twists.

Character delineation, though secondary to the plot, is sufficient. Simon, the detective on the case, is likeable though not deeply developed; Delia, who is both Simon’s romantic interest and a management level member of the choral society, is also more pleasant than memorable. The victims and the suspects include a range of backgrounds, ages, and interests; they are, on the whole, neither one-dimensional nor oversimplified. Particularly noteworthy, in my view, is the recurrent theme of absence of intrinsic correlation between artistic and moral excellences.

Newman successfully creates the illusion of a larger and more complex world than just the action of the story. For example, a particular feature of the finale of a musical work is both artistically unexpected and an important mechanism of the plot. A few sentences of dialogue draw attention to the artistic dissonance, and raise the question of the motivation of the composer (a major character) in writing it thus. The question is not essential to the plot, and is neither answered nor further alluded to; this, and similar literary touches, create a subtle impression of a broader, deeper backstory than is actually used in the narrative.

Readers who prefer (as I do) that their mystery reading not be laced with offensive language, extensive or explicit sex, and/or graphic violence will be comfortable with Murder to Music. There is, indeed, one notable exception: the final murder is far more gruesome than anything that preceded it. Understandably so, when all is revealed; but the horror of this death nevertheless jolts the reader. And the gulf between the wartime (WWII) and peacetime activities of this victim is similarly jarring, and strains plausibility.

Taken on the whole, I enjoyed the book, and recommend it to fans of detective fiction.

A very enjoyable read, with well-drawn characters and a clear sense of place and setting. As a choral singer myself, I especially enjoyed the focus on the choir members and committee, and it all felt very true to life. Not much seems to have changed in the English choral world in fifty years! I was pleased to discover a new author from the "classic crime" era, and hope to read more of her work.

This is a charming almost-cozy (one murder and it's copycat are rather gruesome, but fortunately not discussed until late in the story) mystery. "Murder to Music" by Margaret Newman features Detective Superindendent Simon Hudson who is NOT omniscient and must follow red herrings and obscure references before finally fitting all the puzzle pieces into one solution. Written over 60 years ago, it retains a freshness and humanity that rings true today. Well worth the read.

I loved Murder to Music! As much a romance as a detective story, it was clever and fun with engaging and believable main characters. Simon (a Detective Superintendent) and Delia, his girlfriend were rounded and flawed like real life people. It was pleasant to meet a detective who was less than sure of himself and I rooted for him and Delia through the course of the book. Set in the fairly immediate post-war period, it had a slightly old-fashioned feel but was none the worse for that.

Detective-Superintendent Simon Hudson's girlfriend, Delia, is a soprano with the Metropolitana, a London choral society. Its conductor-in-chief, Evan Tredegar, has written a new choral Mass that the choral society will be premiering soon and it has hired a popular Italian tenor named Cassati to solo in it. At the last minute, the assistant conductor, Owen Burr, who is talented but not well liked, replaces Tredegar at the opening performance. The Mass receives thundering applause and Owen Burr takes many bows. It takes a few moments for onlookers to realize his last bow is odd--he's been shot but no one heard anything, not even Detective-Superintendent Hudson who is in the audience. Simon takes on the case and soon identifies several suspects among the members of the choral society. Next, Cassati disappears under mysterious circumstances. Lastly, the "Old Man," Evan Tredeger, is gassed in his home. Who is behind these acts and is it a friend of Delia's in the Metropolitani? Author Margaret Newman constructs an interesting plot and employs several red herrings to misdirect the reader. However, her characters aren't fleshed out a great deal and are rather flat.

As his girlfriend Delia Jones is part of the choir, Detective Superintendent Simon Hudson is attending the Metropolitana Choir’s concert. But his position becomes awkward when the conductor dies at the end of the performance, and she is one of the suspects. But will this be the last death connected to the choir.
An enjoyable cozy mystery with enough suspects and motives in the mix.
Originally written in 1959.

This is an unknown author to me but this book is worthy of the term "classic crime". The story starts slowly but builds into an intriguing mystery and all the twists and turns are unravelled at the end - with the obligatory red herrings thrown in along the way. I, for one, will be looking out for more of her work in the future and I would recommend her to fans of this genre.

Seemed similar to Christie's Tommy and Tuppence books, except it's in the 50's instead of the 20's or 30's. And yet it managed to seem more dated! The romance is just as sweet, as the investigating policeman tries to find out who killed the conductor of his sweetheart's Choir orchestra. Perhaps too often he says things to her like, "Well, it's against policy, but sure, you can come along." I don't think that would fly with today's experienced readers. It did pick up half-way through, both in method of investigation and in the pace of the book. Not exciting, more of the old puzzle type than most modern murder novels. I started with three stars, but I was finally engaged in trying to figure out whodunnit, so I added one. It's not what I'd call "classic", but a nice little story to read with a cup of tea or glass of port.