The Music Lovers

Harry Stoner Mystery #10

by Jonathan Valin

Detective Harry Stoner has seen better days. Enter Leon Tubin, an odd little man with worn trousers but a pocketful of cash. Leon's a collector of vintage LP recordings and he's sure another member of his music-listening group is ripping him off. They're all jealous of his record library, especially his Wagner-loving rival, Sherwood Loeffler. It seems to be nickel-and-dime stuff to Harry but Leon insists that the recordings in question are worth about ten thousand dollars. After interviews with Leon's music-loving cronies, Harry is struck by their obsessive audio compulsions but almost positive that when it comes to grand theft, they are all on the up-and-up. It's Leon's blond bombshell of a wife, Sheila, who has Harry doing a double take. What's a woman like her doing with a wimp like Leon? Sheila confides that Leon saved her years before from her days as a swizzle-stick lounge singer, and out of loyalty and true love she'd do anything to protect him. But what does Sheila's past have to do with a bunch of stolen records? A bizarre trail of clues emerges but, in the end, Harry finds his case won't be completely resolved even though he's heard the fat lady sing over and over again.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Detective

233 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Jonathan Valin is an American mystery author best known for the Harry Stoner detective series. He won the Shamus Award for best mystery novel of 1989. After writing eleven Harry Stoner novels over a 14-year period, he took a break from mystery writing to help found Fi, a magazine of music criticism. He now works as an editor and reviewer for magazines.

He is an alumnus of the University of Chicago and lived there for many years.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must be some kind of contrarian. After being disappointed in the last two Valin novels, both of which had “Shamus Award” attention—Extenuating Circumstances (winner), Second Chance (nominee)—I am unequivocally delighted by the next volume in the Harry Stoner series, The Music Lovers which, as far as I can tell, received no award buzz at all.

Perhaps the critics didn’t like the tone. The Music Lovers (1993)—Valin’s penultimate novel, at least to date—embodies a dramatic shift in tone. The previous nine novels were world-weary, grim, featuring some very bad people and some very bloody crimes. The crimes of The Music Lovers are still bloody, but the people are odd and amusing, like characters out a ‘30s screwball comedy. They are mostly dedicated audiophiles, OCD eccentric with a passionate love for music, but an even more ardent love for their quest for the holy grail of sound—the properly balanced audio system that can fool the listener into thinking the orchestra is playing right there in the living room.

Detective Harry Stoner—a lover of music but no means an audiophile—enters into the weird little world of audiophiles when Leon Tubin arrives in his office on evening to hire him to find a burglar who stole from him some very valuable vinyl discs. Leon, who is Jewish and a bit of a nebbish, is convinced that the thief is a member of his own audiophile club, his bete-noir the Wagner-loving Sherwood Loeffler who has a habit of using antisemitic taunts to get under Leon’s skin.

Things aren’t that simple, of course. Leon’s implausibly beautiful wife appears to have something to hide, and—at least in Stoner’s opinion—Leoffler doesn’t seem a better suspect than anybody else in the audiophile club. Soon the burglaries grow violent, and there is a more serious crime to solve. Harry Stoner has difficult case on his hands.

The last quarter of the novel shifts from comedy to suspense, and the resolution of the plot is both sudden and satisfying. I think The Music Lovers may be Valin’s third or fourth best novel, right up there with Extenuating Circumstances, Lifework, and Fire Lake.

But then you should take this whole review with a grain of salt. After all, I am some kind of contrarian.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Music Lovers is a private investigator tale in the classic American tradition. Harry Stoner is hired to recover some valuable records by an odd couple – a rather weedy, unattractive college lecturer and his bombshell wife, a former band singer. What seems like it might be a routine case quickly becomes something much more murky and dangerous. Using his wiles and tough guy act, Stoner has to solve the puzzle and do battle with a bad guy. It all feels a bit ‘colour by numbers’ but Valin plays the trope well providing a breezy and entertaining narrative and populating the tale with a mix of engaging characters. The result is tale that is enjoyable but lacking substance and edge.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this audiobook. Harry Stoner is that Sam Spade kind of private eye. Rough and tough, Harry is all old school. Unfortunately sometimes the dialogue gets just a touch too corny. But this story was one of the better Harry Stoner plots. Harry is doing poorly financially, so when a little man offers him $500 to recover stolen LP records, Harry agrees. Harry does not appreciate the value of the albums at first. He meets members of the audiophile group. They are obsessive about their music and stereos. Harry's client insists that his rival in the group has stolen the albums. But as Harry digs the case becomes very much more complicated. When Harry finds $30,000 in the man's freezer, he starts wondering if there is more than he bargained for with this odd group of men. Then the guy is beaten and his wife is kidnapped. Harry is in deep. There is a surprise twist at the end.

[Bill Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, but Jonathan Valin has moved towards a lighter tone, even funny in the first third. Moving into the world of audiophiles and their vinyl collections is an odd place to go and seems a very light crime for Harry Stoner to investigate, but then he is a bit desperate. The introductions of the various characters lead to good entertainment and Valin treads a fine line exposing and ridiculing racism and then we get to classic Valin territory with a tense ending before the final reveal. While Valin does the private eye novel as well as most, this isn't his best and probably for completists, but certainly a quick and entertaining read.

[Paula Schumm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook from the library. The Music Lovers is a group of guys in Cincinnati who love old vinyl records and sound systems. One of them hires private detective Harry Stoner to find out who stole part of his private collection. The characters are engaging and quirky, and the plot is twisty. Recommended.

[Jake Barberine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this for free and read its entirety on a bus to New Paltz. It kept me entertained for the whole ride there. Is keeping my mind at bay for 2.5 hours enough to justify 3/5 stars? Maybe not, but this is my Goodreads page so I don’t really care.

[Ken French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much less dark than the other book from this series that I recently read.

[Richard Reich · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much lighter tone to this book than prior books in the series.

[Jason Hillenburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's really quite astonishing to read how well Valin holds up as a writer. He communicates authorial presence with every line and you are hard pressed to find any wasted motion in The Music Lovers. Moving the traditional bi-coastal private detective into the Midwest wasn't unique, Estelman did it with Amos Walker, but those still represent key moments in the genre's history. The Harry Stoner series is a little dated, superficially, but the mechanics and construction are as potent as ever. Valin populates his fictional world with recognizable types, inflated for dramatic purposes, but nonetheless tethered to our everyday lives. It's a shame Valin stopped publishing fiction.

[Hapzydeco · Rating 3 out of 5]

An audiophile and his classical LPs collection serve as the red herring for P.I. Stoner. toner has a Rockford feel for detecting.

[Elly Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining, light read.

[Carol Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, amazing atmosphere and fantastic characters. I LOVE this series!

[Joan Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

tried to read this twice. the characters just never caught hold.