The Haunting Ballad--A Mystery

July 14, 2014
Set in 1957, Nethercott’s diverting second Lee Plunkett mystery (after 2013’s The Séance Society) takes the Connecticut PI and his fiancée, Audrey Valish, to Greenwich Village. At the Cafe Mercutio, they witness an acrimonious dispute between two performers, “song-catcher” Lorraine Cobble and troubadour Byron Spires. When Lorraine apparently leaps to her death from the roof of her apartment building, her distraught cousin, Sally Joan Cobble, hires Lee to prove she didn’t commit suicide. Lee is the nominal detective, but the heavy lifting is done by wily Irishman Mr. O’Nelligan, who lends sage advice and guidance. Together, the duo approach Lorraine’s former housemates, such as “ghost chanter” Mrs. Pattinshell and 105-year-old Civil War vet Cornelius Boyle. Nethercott has fun with the bustling Bohemian atmosphere and Lee and Audrey’s awkward romance, but reserves the best lines for the exchanges between O’Nelligan and Lee as they close in on the unlikely culprit. Agent: Susan Gleason, Susan Gleason Literary Agency.

September 15, 2014
Private eye Lee Plunkett ventures forth from Thelmont, Connecticut, to solve the murder of a professional songcatcher in the Greenwich Village of 1957. Not that the police think Lorraine Cobble was murdered. Even though she didn't leave a note, her life was so turbulent they can easily believe she threw herself from the roof of her apartment building a few hours after she publicly accused handsome young troubadour Byron Spires of having stolen one of her songs. Lee, having been present with his eternal fiancee, Audrey Valish, for this blowup, is soon retained by Lorraine's much younger cousin Sally Joan Cobble, who doesn't buy the NYPD story of her cousin's death. Of course, his professional forces would be incomplete without the addition of Mr. O'Nelligan, the unsalaried "assistant" who gave Lee such timely help in his debut (The Seance Society, 2013). It's lucky that the roguish Irishman is on hand to help, since Byron Spires soon commits a second theft, as Lee realizes to his mortification when he sees Audrey in his company. Fortified by their partnership, Lee and Mr. O'Nelligan interview Lorraine's downstairs neighbors, the ghost chanter Mrs. Pattinshell and the 105-year-old Civil War veteran Cornelius Boyle; the musical Doonan brothers, who evidently couldn't keep from stirring up trouble for Lorraine; Tony "the Grand" Mazzo, owner of the Cafe Mercutio, where the rest of the cast sing their hearts out when they aren't fighting each other; and Mercutio performers Ruby Dovavska and Kimla Thorpe. And they also hear from Lorraine herself, whose ghostly song accusing her killer Mrs. Pattinshell performs for them. Another pleasantly retro puzzler whose colorful cast members seem to have nothing better to do than be suspected of murder.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2014
Sally Joan Cobble doesn't believe that her high-spirited, bohemian sister committed suicide. She asks PI Lee Plunkett and his erudite sidekick, Mr. O'Nelligan, to prove that Lorraine was pushed off the top of her apartment building. Lorraine was a fixture in the 1950s Greenwich Village folksinging scene. She made her fair share of enemies, though, as rumors swirled that she stole songs that other musicians had been collecting. The Beat scene is as foreign to Connecticut-bred Plunkett as Mars, and when he brings his fianc'e, Audrey, to one of the Village's hottest clubs, he inadvertently awakens an adventurous spirit in the eternally engaged dime-store clerk. Plunkett's wry first-person narrative offers an arrestingperspective on this section of preMad Men society, and courtly Irish O'Nelligan once again (The S'ance Society, 2013) steers his young friend toward the right conclusion. A strong second entry in the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)