cover image A Measure of Murder: A Sally Solari Mystery

A Measure of Murder: A Sally Solari Mystery

Leslie Karst. Crooked Lane, $25.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-68331-018-1

Engaging characters, terrific writing, and a savory blend of musical and culinary erudition build on the promise of Karst’s series opener, 2016’s Dying for a Taste. As if Santa Cruz, Calif., former lawyer Sally Solari didn’t have enough on her plate—helping manage her father’s red-sauce Italian restaurant while overseeing the nouveau California Gaugin inherited from Aunt Letta—her DA ex-beau, Eric Byrne, talks her into auditioning for his chorus’s summer performance of Mozart’s Requiem. Halfway through the first rehearsal, the talented but snarky tenor Kyle Copman takes a fatal plunge through a window. The cops say accident. Sally eyeballs the angle of the body and says murder. Whether extolling 00 flour, considering Mozart’s unsung collaborators, describing the thrill of biking with a possible murderer, or explaining the fine points of will-writing, polymath Karst sauces her plot without masking its flavor. And she’s a dab hand with the red herrings. Agent: Erin Niumata, Folio Literary Management. (Feb.)