Bruce Von Stiers

Bill Moody is a professional jazz drummer and music critic. He is also the author of a few mystery novels. These books feature jazz pianist Evan Horne. The latest Evan Horne title is Looking For Chet Baker. It was published by Walker & Company.

In this new book, Evan is hanging out in London. He has gotten a gig playing in a club in London. He also is slotted for a radio interview. On the scene pops his friend Ace Buffington. Ace is going to Amsterdam to research the death of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. It seemed that Chet had either jumped, fell or been pushed from a hotel room window back in 1988. Ace wants Evan to collaborate on the book that he is going to write about Chet Baker. Evan declines and Ace goes away dejected.

Soon after that, Evan gets the opportunity to play with Fletcher Paige, a legendary Tenor Sax player who has been living in Amsterdam for a number of years. Evan goes to check up on Ace only to find that he has disappeared. Nobody seems to know what happened to him.

At first, Evan can’t get anyone interested in helping him look for Ace. The police seem to think that Ace is still around and just doesn’t want to be found. Fletcher Paige thinks that maybe Ace is running some kind of game on Evan. But Evan is not too sure either scenario is right when he finds papers that Ace left behind in his hotel room.

Things kind of heat up when Evan finally convinces the police that Ace might really be in danger. It seems that Ace might have been tracking down a lead about Chet Baker owing a lot of money to some drug dealers when he died. Evan has known Ace to take things a step too far and get in trouble.

Interspersed with the ongoing storyline, we find out about how Evan had helped capture a serial killer. This situation caused him to be involved with a female federal agent. That kind of helped end a serious relationship and now Evan was on the mend from both the relationship and the emotional scars from dealing with the serial killer.

Bill Moody has done well by mixing jazz music with a missing person investigation. He trots out names of famed jazz musicians during the course of his tale. Names like Duke Ellington and Percy Heath are mentioned. One name that confused me was Russ Freeman. He was a musician associated with Chet Baker a few decades ago. The only Russ Freeman I had heard of was the guitarist front man for the smooth jazz band The Rippingtons. Upon checking on the Internet, I found out that they were indeed two different people and the Russ Freeman mentioned in the book has recently died. Bill also gets you in the mood for jazz as he details some of the jam sessions and performances that Evan has with Fletcher Paige.

Looking For Chet Baker is a solid mystery. You aren’t real certain what is going on until it is revealed. We get to see Evan deal with his ghosts as he tries to find out what happened to Ace. The jazz references are great. It makes me wish that I had some Chet Baker music in my collection. Bill also added some sidebars in the book that give a unique spin on what Chet Baker’s last days were like.

You can find Looking For Chet Baker at book retailers like Barnes and Noble. If you can’t find it at a local bookstore, it can be ordered directly from Walker & Company. Their web site is www.walkerbooks.com.