Overture to Death — Ngaio Marsh

Just before the curtain went up on an amateur production to raise money for a new church piano, the old one went off with a bang--polishing off a local spinster as she struck the opening chords of the overture. The suspects were familiar figures in any English village: the squire, the parson, the church hen, the local doctor. It was left to Inspector Alleyn to determine which of these quite ordinary characters was capable of a most extraordinary murder.