The last three Musical Directors of 'The Dalziels' had left them high and dry by moving to France. Their next one was to make the 'ultimate move' by getting himself murdered!



The village band in Swinbury Abbot has jogged along quite happily for nigh on a decade. Band practices are free and easy affairs, the music never commencing until after a rather lavish meal with wine, followed by more wine, and then maybe running through a piece or two, just for form's sake. Until the vicar turns up with a new musical director, who plays quite a different tune...





For the newcomer's ideas of what a band's routine should consist of are completely at odds with the musicians' current practices. His clashes with the various band members cause enormous resentment, and, in one of them, a hatred strong enough to provoke murder!



Into this welter of negative emotions, Detective Inspector Falconer and Detective Sergeant Carmichael of the Market Darley CID arrive, determined to get to the bottom of things and bring the killer to justice, while simultaneously dealing with their own domestic problems.



But the musical mayhem - and the murderousness - doesn't stop there...