Allegra Brewster, cellist and newly minted arts administrator, finds herself torn between keeping her job with the SummerFest Symphony and her loyalty to its musicians. The tension rises to a higher level when she discovers the death of a central person in the conflict. Many people with ill feelings toward the victim are potential murder suspects, but it is her father upon whom the police focus their attention.

Set at a fictional summer music festival in coastal Maine, Dissonance explores the struggle between a nonprofit arts board and its musicians, wealthy summer people and locals, a besotted suitor and the former girlfriend he betrayed, and a young woman's faith in her own detective skills and the obvious fact that someone close to her committed murder.

Filled with music references (and accompanied by a Spotify playlist), Dissonance brings the reader into the world of a summer orchestra, its musicians and supporters, and the small town they occupy.

A musician, writer, sailor, editor, educator, nonprofit executive and board member, and long-time New Englander, Barbara Burt now lives in Georgia with her husband, two daughters, one granddaughter, and two dogs. Summers find her in Maine. You can reach her at barbwriter@proton.me.