Death by Accordion

Ella Polansky has been playing the accordion since she was a child. In fact, she names her accordions and treats them tenderly. In Death by Accordion by Cheryl Miller Thurston, Ella's favorite accordion Tillie is with her as she practices with the community theater orchestra.

Director Judith Pence has been driving everyone nuts with her orders and complaints. The two lead characters are having trouble learning the lyrics to the songs and this has pushed Judith to the limit. When the rehearsal is finally over Ella decides to leave her heavy accordion in the orchestra pit because she knows the theater will be locked at night.

The next day, much to her chagrin, Tillie is found on top of the very dead Judith Pence. It appears Tillie had been pushed off the balcony onto Judith's head. As much as Ella would love this to be an accident, she knows Tillie didn't jump off the balcony to kill Judith, but someone else did.


When Ella is questioned as a person of interest in the murder, she is suspended from her kindergarten job and decides to try to clear her name. In addition she has to deal with her crazy best friend Sammie who is pregnant by a egotistical male model who is not father material, all the while trying to keep the secret from Sammie's mother the Pickle Queen.

Ella and her friends are quite the group, especially her eighty-somethings polka band pals  A humorous and entertaining mystery with just the right amount of accordion music.



Disclosure: I received this book from the author.