This is an entertaining novella featuring an unlikely hero. By day, Frank Ryan is a 40-something piano technician (don't call him a "tuner", thank you very much) living in Nanaimo. He spends his nights playing jazz at a club owned by the enigmatic Kaz.
He has a network of regular customers like the elderly Miss Pieczynski, whose piano yields a nasty surprise after Frank arrives to fix it. In lieu of payment, she gives him an old music manuscript. That's when things get weird.
Frank puts his music degree to good use & recognizes the hand written score as being a new symphony by Beethoven. And life as he knows it is over. Pretty soon he's dodging thugs & cops as he tries to stay alive long enough to present the work at a bash for Beethoven's birthday in Vancouver.
I won't reveal more of the plot as it's only 160 pages. But it's amazing how much is packed into this slim volume. It's told in first person & Frank is a charming narrator. His chatty & humorous voice will have you laughing & cringing, often at the same time, as he relates his story. The characters are well developed & distinct. It's an easy, fast paced read with a couple of nice little twists I didn't see coming. And I now know WAAAAY more about septic tanks than I ever wanted to.
By the end it's obvious Frank's life is heading in a new direction & I'd like to see where the author takes him next.
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