Death by Saxophone

By Debbie Burke

If Jerry Zolotov gets one more bouquet of black roses with a threatening note, he’s gonna hang up his sequined jumpsuit and throw his sax into the Atlantic Ocean, just minutes from his home in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. Adored by fans for decades and with several platinum albums, the smooth jazz musician has just purchased a once-in-a-lifetime piece of history, the Holy Grail of jazz contraband: a Russian “bone record” produced on discarded X-rays during the Cold War and sold on the black market. The record has a very special provenance—and, as it turns out, a very dangerous one.

Meanwhile, in the nearby neighborhood of Little Odessa, radiology tech Becka Rifkin is dying to reconnect with an old flame who moved back to Russia. Then he happens to mention a newly discovered bone record that just became available. Unable to turn down the chance to own this very rare collectible, Becka books her flight.

When Jerry Z is found bobbing in the Verrazano Narrows, Becka becomes embroiled in the unthinkable.

KIRKUS REVIEWS calls it "gritty and flecked with colorful details...There’s lots of imagination on display in these pages, and Burke paints an evocative portrait of the jazz musicians, aficionados, and mobsters of Brooklyn’s Eastern European community."