Sound Proof

by Barbara Gregorich

Publishers Weekly called Frank Dragovic, who first appeared in Dirty Proof, “an enlightened detective” and “a charming, savvy narrator.”
Now Chicago private eye Dragovic is back, working undercover at Midwest Music Madness, a folk festival targeted by a thief. The corn is high in Iroquois County, the food deliciously Midwestern, the music old-time tunes and songs. But sour notes abound, and theft of musical instruments soon crescendos to murder.
Working undercover as a carpenter, Frank finds himself repairing corn cribs and pigpens in the July heat. At the same time, he must determine the thief and murderer — difficult to do while surrounded by suspects playing fiddles, banjos, guitars, autoharps, hammered dulcimers, bowed psaltries, and rhythm bones.

Genres: Mystery

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 5, 2011

About the author

Barbara Gregorich, who writes fiction and nonfiction for adults and for children, has in her writing career deliberately moved from one genre to another, writing about the things important in life — baseball, mystery, and social justice. Her seminal Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball won the SABR-MacMillan Award and laid the groundwork for other books on the subject. ​​​​​​​For her research and writings on women in baseball, Barbara Gregorich received the 2024 SABR Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2021 City of Light published The F Words, whose story of ICE persecution of immigrants focuses on the resilience of working class teens. Exit Velocity (2024) features a young working class woman who encounters discrimination in the workplace and assault on the streets. As she fights for her rights, she is aided by a parrot from another planet.

Barbara's most recent book, Ballad of the Horse and Mule: Some Will Make It Through, is a novella-in-verse, an exciting story of a cross-country endurance horse race. This story of competition, steadfastness, and friendship appeals to all ages.

For more information about Barbara and her books, visit her blog, Much to Write About, available on GoodReads.

Reviews

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sound Proof is the second in Barbara Gregorich's mystery series featuring private investigator, Frank Dragovic. At the urging of his girlfriend Suzanne Quering, Frank is undercover at the Midwest Musical Festival trying to determine the culprit in a series of valuable instrument thefts. Suspicion is rife and tensions run high as the mercurial musicians squabble amongst themselves and the stakes are raised when a fiddle disappears from the caravan where a murdered man is discovered. Was the thief simply desperate to escape or does a murderer also stalk the festivities?

Sound Proof is an intricately plotted murder mystery laden with clever misdirections and twists. The setting, an old time musical festival in the midwest, is interesting and the author demonstrates her familiarity with the scene with authentic detail. I know little about old time music so I was fascinated by the information Gregorich works in to the story particularly about the musical instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy, bowed psaltries and dulcimers. It is obvious the story is carefully researched and her writing is well crafted with vivid description and realistic dialogue. The pace is a little slow in places but there is a satisfying climax when the mysteries are resolved.

The story is told from the first person point of view by Frank Dragovic. Frank has the feel of a traditional investigator, keenly observing the festival participants under his guise of a carpenter, and discretely poking around their personal business. He proves to be determined and intelligent, able to unravel the tangled strings that bind the suspects.
The cast of suspects includes Frank's employer and several of the festival attendees and even the Sherrif and Deputy. For most of the story I had no idea who could possibly be responsible for the thefts or murder as Gregorich identified possible motives amongst the large group. Initially I struggled to separate so many primary characters who are introduced en masse and think that there should have been a few less but as each were developed over the course of the story they became distinct and realistic characters. The lives of the group intersect in several ways and the author does well to ensure natural connections between them.

I enjoyed reading Sound Proof, it's an intelligent mystery with a likeable protagonist and entertaining premise. Fans of old time music should especially enjoy the setting and mystery lovers will be challenged to solve the crime.

[Barbara Gregorich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rate many of the books I’ve written at four stars, some at three stars. But there are a few of my books that I rate as five-star books: Sound Proof is one of them.

In Sound Proof Chicago private eye Frank Dragovic is working undercover as a carpenter, at a downstate folk music festival in Iroquois County. Mary Ployd, festival organizer, asked Frank to discover who has been stealing stringed instruments at each of the two previous festivals. But when fiddle player Shelby Stubbs is murdered, theft quickly takes second place to murder.

The setting of Sound Proof is not a common one, but it’s one I was immersed in for several years when my husband and I attended folk music festivals, especially those featuring the hammered dulcimer. The rich details of this setting emerge in the story: readers enjoy effortlessly learning about folk music and folk music instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy, hammered dulcimer, autoharp, and bowed psaltry.

The characters are also uncommon, at least in the fact that they are folk musicians. And in the fact that they are complex, hiding much. Mary Ployd does more to hinder Frank Dragovic’s solving of murder than she does to help him — but she has a strong reason for doing so. Lafayette Wafer seems too absorbed by his music to be guilty — yet he sells a stolen instrument. And then there’s Richard, the pet pig Mary has secretly trained to catch a thief. Will Richard succeed?

As a mystery reader, I’ve always enjoyed books in which the motive for the crime is rooted in the distant past. Sound Proof is that kind of book, replete with foreshadowing that doesn’t seem like foreshadowing until the climax, when the killer tries to complete his intentions on the last day of the festival.