Axel Crochet, peripatetic professor of music history, nurtures a youthful enthusiasm that he passes on to his students. His passion for music is obvious- and his disdain for university politics is evident as his work leads him from college to college. Abby Fox, a music major at an exclusive women's college where Axel temporarily teaches, commits suicide after her father dies. But after Axel's other students persuade him that Abby would not have taken her own life, Axel begins an investigation that soon implies she may have been murdered. As a visiting scholar at Magnolia University, Axel is unexpectedly embroiled in another case when one of his classmates dies in an accident and he takes possession of her computer-a decision that leads him into a struggle with a computer genius. As a visiting professor at Frangipani University, Axel discovers his life mirrors that of Faust when the death of a stage director draws him into a maelstrom of jealousy and violence in the world's largest school of music. In this intriguing collection of novellas, Axel Crochet's love of musicology leads him straight into unintended interludes with killers, danger, and intrigue as he attempts to solve a trio of murder investigations.