Retro Reading: Murder for Choir by Joelle Charbonneau

The closest I've ever come to singing was in my sixth grade choir. After that I never had any desire to sing. Of course in high school there were many types of singing groups. I was never interested in joining any of them.

I think that's why I had a hard time with Murder for Choir by Joelle Charbonneau, the first in the Glee Club Mysteries. Unfortunately, after finishing the book, I couldn't believe I had wasted my time.

I'm not a gawker at accidents but this sure felt like I was doing some gawking. In fact, it started out really bad and somehow I was drawn into the story. How that happened, I'm not sure.

Paige Marshall is a struggling opera singer in Chicago who accepts a job as show choir director. It's the week before school starts and she's not feeling welcome at the school and to top it off, she discovers the body of Greg Lucas, the rival high school's choir director.

When Paige hears that one of her students, Eric Metz, is the prime suspect, she starts to dig deeper into the murder. Along the way, she discovers a lot about Greg and how he would try to date students.

As she investigates, Detective Mike Kaiser is smitten and whenever he can steals a kiss from her which she finds odd, but then at the same time also exciting. This is one suave detective.

While the characters and dialogue are well written, they seem out of place. Since this is a story centering around school, the action rarely takes place there. Of course the beginning and a few scenes do, but I think it would have been better if there were more events happening there.

I vaguely knew who the students were (the only students who stand out are Chessie-for the unusual name and Eric, well, how could I not forget that?!) and although their motivation is to have a fantastic choir we basically read about a few rehearsals.

Maybe in time we'll get to know the school and its students more.