Shades of Blue

Evan Horne #6

by Bill Moody

After several months of successful work in London and Amsterdam with American expatriate Fletcher Paige, Evan Horne returns to the states and settles in the San Francisco Bay Area. There he reunites with his girlfriend, FBI agent, Andie Lawrence. And Evan quickly makes inroads into the Bay Area jazz scene. Life is good until a phone call from a Los Angeles attorney turns his life upside down. Evans old friend and former mentor, pianist Calvin Hughes, has died, and named Evan as his sole beneficiary. Evan is shocked to learn that Hughes has left him his small Hollywood house, money, and all his possessions. But when Evan begins to play through some hand-written sheet music, he recognizes one as a song from the landmark Miles Davis recording Birth of the Cool, and another from Kind of Blue, arguably one of the most important recordings in modern jazz. Was Calvin Hughes the uncredited composer of one or both of these tunes, or was it simply Hughess transcriptions from the recordings? In addition, Evans finds a cryptic note, and a photo taken almost 40 years earliera young Cal with his hand on a baby carriage. Both are taped to the bottom of a dresser drawer. A friend of Cals Lisa Gaines will continue to take care of Milton and rent from Evan. Evan is soon on a whirl-wind journey across the country to find answers from his family and to confront his mother. What was her relationship with Calvin Hughes? And just how did Jazz come into the equation?

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook

265 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2008

About the author

Bill Moody is a mystery author and professional jazz drummer. He is the author of Shades of Blue, Looking for Chet Baker, Bird Lives! and three other Evan Horne novels.

Reviews

[Melodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite some time since I last read an Evan Horne mystery, so it was a treat to come across this in one of The Piles! Evan loses an important person in his life in this one and uncovers many secrets about his own life. Good read as always!

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read most of Bill Moody's Evan Horne books, but I had missed this one. When I heard that Bill passed away recently, I decided to rectify that omission. I met Bill several times, and I enjoyed his special jazz niche in the mystery world. This book was a quick read and an interesting story that filled in some information on Evan's past. It has some mysterious situations, and some crime, but it's far from a typical mystery novel. He did a good job of alluding to previous cases where he functioned as an amateur sleuth without revealing too much detail, so you can read this book even if you haven't read any others in the series. I recommend them for a pleasant change of pace (or tempo?) from other mystery books.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy this series, and this story in particular.

Evan is now living in Northern California and discovers that his mentor has died and left him as executor. In addition, he finds more about the life and times of Cal and also about Evan's own family history.

I enjoyed the up close and behind the scenes of a recording session and the suspicions cast upon all of the characters. At one point the only person I felt safe with was Evan himself.

I highly recommend Shades of Blue, and I am not even a jazz fan.

I borrowed a copy from the public library.

[bobg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not totally a standalone novel; there are lots of references back to previous books. You just don’t know how any of that missing background figures in to the current story. Secondly, Evan is not all that likable. Things fall into place for him, yet he seems to dwell on how he’s been wronged.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to it twice. Loved it!

[Susan Mumpower-spriggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful series for lovers of jazz and mysteries.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Shades of Blue, by Bill Moody, B-plus, Narrated by Grover Gardner, produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

This is a smooth relaxing read about a jazz pianist who apparently has also worked with the FBI, you probably have to suspend belief, and this takes place in previous books, I assume. This is my first Bill Moody and I will read more. This book was full of references to the jazz greats of the late ‘40’s and early ‘50’s, my favorite jazz era. Grover Gardner is one of the most seasoned narrators around and does a really good job with this book.

Publisher’s note:
After months of successful work in Europe, musician Evan Horne returns to settle in the San Francisco Bay area, where he makes inroads into the jazz scene.Life
is good until he gets a phone call from a Los Angeles attorney. Evan's old friend and former mentor, pianist Calvin Hughes, has died and left Evan all
of his possessions.Sorting through Hughes's belongings in Los Angeles, Horne finds a cryptic note, a mysterious photo, and handwritten sheet music of songs
from the landmark Miles Davis recordings "Birth of the Cool" and "Kind of Blue". Was Hughes the real composer? And what was his relationship with Evan's mother? A whirlwind journey ensues, taking Evan across the country to find answers.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned a whole lot about jazz and got inspired to buy Miles Davis "The Birth of Cool" album afterwards. It didn't really seem like a mystery novel though, more like a book about jazz music that had a dash of suspenseful "things" thrown in: a secret about the past, unknown music crib sheets, preserved recordings of rehearsal sets with Miles Davis, missing laptops.... There's a lot in there, but the plot was rather hum-drum, parts of it predictable to anyone who reads mysteries regularly. However, Moody's smooth descriptions about jazz and jazz musicians, and all the threads of the story related to music hooked me in and kept me there until the end of the book.

[Carol Wagers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted very much to like this book because I met the author at UNLV when he was a TA there in the late 70's. The jazz references were great, but I felt the story was predictable, and there wasn't the depth of characterization that I'd prefer. Moody spent far too much time writing about the food the characters ate, and too little time developing believable, interesting characters. It did inspire me to dig out my Miles Davis CD's, and I enjoyed listening to them as I read the book.

[Doctor Sax · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a major Jazz fan I love the constant and accurate backdrop/references of 'America's classical music'. Truly legendary recordings by Miles Davis such as 'Birth of the Cool' & 'Kind of Blue' are actually part of a very intriguing storyline. Moody really captures the scene well and I rank him as a personal favorite among detective writers.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great mystery and oh boy, he's got a bunch of books featuring a jazz pianist detective. my lucky day. Well written, obviously knows alot about jazz (I kept going to the computer to listen to tunes he mentioned) a little suspense, but not scary for this cozy mystery reader.

[Carl Brookins]

I really like Bill Moody and his approach to moody crime fiction about the music biz.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill Evans captures the feeling of the Jazz community in his books, I really enjoy his writing, settings and characters, wrapped around a mystery related to famous jazz musicians.

[Christopher Struck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great Evan Horne mystery from Bill Moody. We learn a lot more about Evan in this installment. Another book in the series is due out in 2011.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

More interesting as a book about the jazz scene than as a mystery, but enjoyable nonetheless.

[Nancy]

read

[Susan]

Per Melinda's recommendation. . .