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The Quarter Note Tales.

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The Quarter Note Tales. By Arthur Wenk. Ontario, Canada: Wingate Press, 2006. [350 p. ISBN-10: 0973856513; ISBN-13 9780973856514. $23.95 CDN]

Arthur Wenk, probably best known to the music community for his work on Debussy and for his indexes to the analytical literature, published in MLA's Index and Bibliography Series, has turned his attention to fiction, particularly the genre of mystery. The Quarter Note Tales, consisting of three novellas that progress chronologically, introduce us to protagonist Axel Crochet, a musicologist and organist. In his author's notes, Wenk suggests that Axel Crochet "represents a nod to Debussy's Monsieur Crochet [sic]."

The first two novellas are set in academia, while the third is set in a church. The root causes behind the crimes--plagiarism in the first two, and financial fraud in the third--could be considered unforgivable in their settings.

The first novella, "An Unfaltering Trust," finds Axel in his first year of a tenure-track appointment at Chihuahua State University, part of the California State University system. Chihuahua State's vision of itself, however, differed from that of a regional campus. "The...

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