Author: Aaron Paul Lazar
Publisher: PublishAmerica
ISB:N 1-4137-2838-3

The following review was contributed by: SHELDON (SHELLY) WAXMAN & click to view Shelly's reviews.

 Aaron Paul Lazar’s first published effort has produced a nice mystery
book, which will be a series. His alter ego, Gus Legarde, is a music
professor in the Rochester, NY area. He is a nice man, who loves to
play piano, listen to opera, cook, garden, scratch his animals’ ears,
and play with his little grandson. 

He moons for his dead wife. He falls in love with his secretary’s
daughter but she has a problem reciprocating. He lives in a house
filled with extended family, dogs, cats, and horses. His daughter,
mother of the grandson, is married to a nasty philandering lawyer
husband, Harold, who is rarely home.

 The action starts when Gus discovers a small girl being held captive
by a brutal man. The villain, an ex-cop, took his daughter from his
estranged wife after he killed her. The villain takes off to the woods
and the speechless little girl is safely sequestered. The brute wants
the daughter back and he will kill Gus and his family to get her. He
eludes capture and haunts Gus, who is determined that he and the
police get him.
 That’s when we get to a twist. Retarded Siegfried, the brother of
Gus’s dead wife, is unjustly accused of killing Harold’s law partner
after Harold—the real killer—plants Siegfrieds’ watch under the body.
Siegfried is released after Gus gathers evidence of his alibi.
 Finally, his dog saves Gus and the ex-cop is killed. There is a chase
scene and Harold is captured after Gus is again saved—this time by
Siegfried. Gus’ ladylove reciprocates, although there is no sex scene.
End of story.

 Nice pace, short chapters, many characters (perhaps, too many). I
liked it that he put English translations to the German he used. Good
outdoor descriptions. Gus gets beat up, perhaps, too much. The meals
are all “hearty” and made me hungry. Perhaps, too much cooking and not
enough action, but this was a first effort. Oh, and the title, it is
connected in the story but it’s ff—a music symbol for extra loud.
 It will be interesting to read the next in the series because I
became endeared to Gus. There are few nice family men left in the
world.