Miss Wilma, the resident organist and piano teacher in the small Southern village of Swan's Knob has enough on her plate already, thank you very much, what with preparing the music for Lily Mae Strong's wedding extravaganza and fending off the pesterings of perennial bachelor Roy, who's got himself all worked up over plans for the July Fourth celebration that's months away.

But when her prodigal daughter Sarah returns with her young granddaughter Starling in tow, what can she do but enjoy the blessing of their unexpected visit? That is until Sarah's absentee husband Harper shows up on Miss Wilma's front porch a few short hours after a murder shakes the small community-and just two steps ahead of Jonah Branch, the longhaired stranger from Santa Fe who's become the number one suspect in the case. Suddenly, Miss Wilma's blessing begins to look more like a house full of trouble...

"Eudora Welty meets Miss Marple in this sweet, sexy Southern tour-de-force.... Literate and funny, The Piano Teacher announces a brilliant future for debut novelist Lynn York." —Lee Smith, author of The Last Girls