<div>Cassandra Reilly travels to Venice to solve the mystery of a missing bassoon, and lands in the midst of an international cast of characters who all have something to hide At the Venice-based symposium on women musicians of Vivaldi&rsquo;s time, an instrument has gone missing: an antique bassoon, an invaluable family heirloom&mdash;and bassoonist Nicky Gibbons stands accused of the theft. Determined to clear her name, Nicky calls Cassandra Reilly&mdash;lesbian translator and part-time sleuth extraordinaire&mdash;and summons her to the City of Water. Fifteen scholars and musicians are attending the symposium, and each has a multitude of quirks and secrets&mdash;as well as motive to steal the bassoon. As Cassandra investigates, she immerses herself in the world of Baroque music, the tangle of personal intrigues at the symposium, and a second mystery involving the orphaned bassoonists of eighteenth-century Venice. Wry, intelligent, and atmospheric, The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists is the fourth and final book in the Cassandra Reilly Mystery series, which begins with Gaud&iacute; Afternoon, Trouble in Transylvania, and The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman.</div>

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The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists

<div>Cassandra Reilly is embroiled in a case of international intrigue and murder as two factions battle over a crumbling resort London-based lesbian translator and part-time sleuth Cassandra Reilly is on the move again. Her latest trip is to China, via Eastern Europe, where, upon receiving a call about a murder in a run-down Transylvanian health spa, she suddenly finds herself embroiled in a murky and wholly unusual investigation. The woman accused of the murder, Gladys Bentwhistle, had previously met Cassandra on the train. She begs Cassandra for help and, unable to resist her own insatiable curiosity and hunger for adventure, Cassandra says yes. As the mystery unfolds, Cassandra and her cohort, including her friend Jacqueline and potential love interest, Eva, are steeped in the history of Romania, from the devastating relics of Ceausescu&rsquo;s tyrannical reign to the vampire folklore born in the region centuries ago. Surprising, gripping, and funny, Trouble in Transylvania is the second book in the Cassandra Reilly Mystery series, which begins with Gaud&iacute; Afternoon and continues with The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman and The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists.</div>

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Trouble in Transylvania

<div>A professional translator and amateur detective travels to Barcelona to find a missing man in this mystery hailed as a &ldquo;high-spirited comic adventure&rdquo; (The New York Times). American but with an Irish passport, the itinerant translator Cassandra Reilly is living in London when she receives an unexpected phone call. The voice on the other end belongs to Frankie Stevens, a San Francisco transplant with an unusual request. Her husband, Ben, has gone missing&mdash;presumably in Barcelona&mdash;and Frankie needs a translator to help her find him. Not one to pass up a well-paying gig or a free trip to Barcelona, Cassandra takes the job. But she quickly realizes that all is not as it seems. Frankie&rsquo;s charm is matched only by her guile. As Cassandra chases down leads in search of Ben, she becomes increasingly tangled in a web of half-truths&mdash;and caught between former flames Ana and Carmen. Winner of the British Crime Writers&rsquo; Award for Best Mystery Based in Europe and the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, Gaud&iacute; Afternoon is the first book in the Cassandra Reilly Mystery series, which continues with Trouble in Transylvania and The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman, and concludes with The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists. </div>

Gaudi Afternoon

<div>When a teenage runaway is murdered and her best friend goes missing, Pam Nilsen must dig into the seedy underbellies of Seattle and Portland to discover the truth Pam Nilsen, co-owner of Seattle collective Best Printing, is still recovering from the heartbreak of her first real girlfriend leaving town when she decides to take two young prostitutes under her wing. The girls, age fourteen, are already coarsened by the worlds of sex, drugs, and crime. When one turns up dead and the other, Trish, is nowhere to be found, Pam hits the streets to find her. Trish, a possible witness to murder, is in danger, but for a runaway child of the night, help is in short supply. Pam is Trish&rsquo;s only hope&mdash;not just for her immediate survival, but for escaping the streets before they can devour her. Sisters of the Road is the second book in the Pam Nilsen Mystery trilogy, which begins with Murder in the Collective and concludes with The Dog Collar Murders.</div>

Sisters of the Road

<div>A collection of nine madcap stories following the wayfaring translator and amateur sleuth Cassandra Reilly around the globe in search of her next great mystery Lesbian translator and part-time detective Cassandra Reilly has two thrilling investigations under her belt: the case of a missing person in Barcelona and that of a dead spa-owner in Transylvania. In this humorous and engrossing collection, Cassandra is hard at work in some of the world&rsquo;s most picturesque locales, including Maui, the English moors, and the Icelandic coast. Among the vast assortment of misdeeds she&rsquo;s called upon to investigate&mdash;most of which take place within the literary world&mdash;Cassandra finds ample opportunity to exercise her trademark wit and eye for irony. From &ldquo;Murder at the International Feminist Book Fair,&rdquo; in which the exploits of a mudslinging women&rsquo;s magazine lead to a death on the floor of the convention, to &ldquo;An Expatriate Death,&rdquo; about a local Mexican writer who appropriates Cassandra&rsquo;s identity for a character in his novel&mdash;and then promptly kills off the character&mdash;The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman is another showcase of the intrepid translator&rsquo;s zest not only for globetrotting, but for wandering smack into the middle of the most unusual crimes. The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman is the third book in the Cassandra Reilly Mystery series, which begins with Gaud&iacute; Afternoon and Trouble in Transylvania, and concludes with The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists.</div>

The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman

<div>When an antipornography activist dies after a provocative speech, Pam Nilsen dives headlong into Seattle&rsquo;s feminist community to uncover a murderer The Seattle Conference on Sexuality is a lightning rod for controversy, with big politics and even bigger personalities descending on the city to discuss issues ranging from pornography to violence against women. Loie Marsh is one such personality, an outspoken critic of porn slated to speak on a panel about the subject. But before she can take her place on stage, Loie is found dead, strangled with a dog collar. Pam Nilsen, the co-owner of a progressive printing collective with significant connections in Seattle&rsquo;s activist community, is uniquely positioned to investigate the murder. Suspects include a member of Christians Against Pornography, an S/M advocate who owned the dog collar used to commit the murder, a producer of erotic lesbian videos, and Loie&rsquo;s ex-husband&mdash;not to mention her resentful ex-lover. It&rsquo;s an unconventional whodunit, but one that Pam is more than ready to take on. The Dog Collar Murders is the final book in the Pam Nilsen Mystery trilogy, which begins with Murder in the Collective and Sisters of the Road.</div>

The Dog Collar Murders

<div>Seattle printing collective owner Pam Nilsen is on the case when a member of the group turns up dead before a controversial merger Pam Nilsen and her twin sister, Penny, inherited Best Printing four years ago when their parents died in a car crash. Unwilling to sell their family legacy, the sisters turned it into a collective run by a cadre of activists whose arguments over the business can be just as impassioned as their support for progressive causes. But internal divisions at the collective pale in comparison to those between Seattle typesetters B. Violet and Moby Dick&mdash;once a single company that has since broken apart into an all-female (and lesbian-run) company, and an all-male (and quickly bankrupt) operation. Shortly after Best Printing and B. Violet begin discussing a merger, the offices of the typesetter are ransacked, one of their members nowhere to be found. Then an employee of Best Printing is found murdered. It appears as if someone will stop at nothing&mdash;not even murder&mdash;to prevent the merger. And it&rsquo;s up to Pam to get to the bottom of this deadly turn of events before the killer strikes again. Murder in the Collective is the first book in the Pam Nilsen Mystery trilogy, which continues with Sisters of the Road and The Dog Collar Murders.</div>

Murder in the Collective

<div>All four mysteries starring the lesbian translator, globetrotter, and amateur sleuth &mdash;including Gaud&iacute; Afternoon&mdash;from the Lambda Literary Award&ndash;winning author. &ldquo;[Cassandra Reilly] has a restless nature, a facility for languages, and a lively curiosity about foreign cultures. Toss in her offbeat sense of humor and you have a terrific road pal.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times Book Review &ldquo;[Cassandra Reilly] has a mind like a steel trap; a literate, uplifting voice; and a wicked sense of humor.&rdquo; &mdash;Library Journal Gaud&iacute; Afternoon: In this &ldquo;high-spirited comic adventure,&rdquo; professional translator and amateur detective Cassandra Reilly travels to Barcelona to find the missing spouse of Frankie Stevens&mdash;but soon learns no one is who they seem (The New York Times). Wilson&rsquo;s award-winning novel was the basis for the movie directed by Susan Seidelman and starring Judy Davis as Cassandra. Gaud&iacute; Afternoon won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery. &ldquo;In the same way that she works issues of sexual politics into her madcap plot, Ms. Wilson also makes the city of Barcelona a lively party to the action.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times Trouble in Transylvania: In this &ldquo;very funny second outing,&rdquo; the London-based lesbian translator and part-time sleuth gets embroiled in a murder in a run-down Transylvanian health spa (Kirkus Reviews). As the mystery unfolds, Cassandra and her cohorts&mdash;including her friend Jacqueline and potential love interest, Eva&mdash;are steeped in the history of Romania, from the devastating relics of Ceausescu&rsquo;s tyrannical reign to the vampire folklore born in the region centuries ago. &ldquo;Travel-writing so compelling that you&rsquo;ll be reaching for your passport. Wilson is smart, tart, and knows how to write from a feminist perspective without once stooping to polemic.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman: These nine madcap stories follow the wayfaring translator and amateur sleuth around the globe to picturesque locales such as Maui, the English moors, and the Icelandic coast. Stories include &ldquo;Murder at the International Feminist Book Fair,&rdquo; in which the exploits of a mudslinging women&rsquo;s magazine lead to death at the convention, and &ldquo;An Expatriate Death,&rdquo; in which a local Mexican writer appropriates Cassandra&rsquo;s identity for a character in his novel&mdash;and then promptly kills off the character. &ldquo;Well-drawn characters and colorful settings . . . recommended.&rdquo; &mdash;Library Journal The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists: At the Venice-based symposium on women musicians of Vivaldi&rsquo;s time, an invaluable antique bassoon has been stolen&mdash;and bassoonist Nicky Gibbons stands accused. As Cassandra investigates, she immerses herself in the world of Baroque music, the tangle of personal intrigues at the symposium, and a second mystery involving the orphaned bassoonists of eighteenth-century Venice. &ldquo;Venice, Vivaldi, international intrigue, lesbians with bassoons&mdash;if you have a hankering for any of these, this book is for you!&rdquo; &mdash;The Bloomsbury Review</div>

Barbara Wilson
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Books By Barbara Wilson (8 Books)

The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists

Trouble in Transylvania

Gaudi Afternoon

Sisters of the Road

The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman

The Dog Collar Murders

Murder in the Collective

The Cassandra Reilly Mysteries

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Barbara WilsonFollow this author