Susan Moore Jordan Knihy

Cincinnati, September 1963: Augusta McKee, former opera singer and current professor of voice on two college campuses, finds herself immersed in mystery from the top of her well-coiffed head to the tip of her beloved stilettos.Augusta's beau, handsome Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, is dealing with a tough case: the murder of a “John Doe”—a victim shot gangland-style and dumped from a car near Parkside Playhouse in lovely Eden Park, not far from a pagoda reputedly haunted by the ghost of a woman murdered decades earlier. And to add to the mystery, a possible eyewitness has vanished into thin air. While Malcolm is busy chasing down leads, Augusta’s attention is focused on the student production she is directing, dramatic scenes from opera which feature on-stage ghosts—just in time for Halloween. Offstage, eerie happenings on the Conservatory campus and a menacing ex-student become increasingly troubling distractions, until Augusta begins to wonder: could Malcolm’s case and her mysterious spirits somehow be connected? Her search for the answer soon leads our favorite sleuth to the alarming realization that ghosts are the least of her worries.

In the 1950s, small town teenager KRISSY PORTER meets ELI LEVIN, a visiting piano prodigy born with a serious heart defect and not expected to live past the age of thirty. They play piano duets, talk about baseball, eat banana splits. Although their budding romance is ended by interference from Eli's family, the star-crossed sweethearts manage to find their way back to each other years later. They marry on Krissy's twentieth birthday while both are college students.The love of music they share is a vital part of their life together. Once he begins his career, Eli's rise is meteoric. Krissy, too, achieves a successful career in the world of music. Intensely devoted and passionate from the beginning, the couple is ever aware of their greatest challenge: living their best lives while never knowing when the various repairs to Eli's heart might give out.

Lindsey Cameron, a gifted young soprano, believes herself called to a life in music and single-mindedly focuses on pursuing a career in opera. But a life-shattering tragedy involving her two college housemates changes everything. Overwhelmed by her shock and grief, Lindsey struggles to say goodbye to one friend while helping her surviving friend on his long road to recovery. After her life is back on track, Lindsey begins a love affair with Nate Cohen, a charming and talented baritone on his way to opera stardom. The young lovers seem destined for a fairy-tale ending, but cracks have begun to appear in Lindsey's resolve for a career in Opera World. Her experiences with suffering and pain have opened her mind to other possibilities in a life lived for music.Love, loss, conviction, and passion merge in this heartfelt story that unravels how, even in life's darkest hours, music gives us hope-and joy.