The Organist and the Magistrate

Description

Two tales of misadventure and crime, illustrating the role of both a church organ and its player and also of a lay Justice of the Peace, drawn from the author’s experiences in both title roles.

In ‘The Organist’, a well-known elderly organist slumps into a coma while giving a recital to a packed church audience. The regular organist, a mysterious young lady, has vanished. In a plot that sweeps from a country town in England to the Rock of Gibraltar, the stakes could not be higher after nefarious plans which could lead to an international crisis are uncovered.

‘The Magistrate’ is an adventure tale of kidnap and revenge. When the Justice becomes the victim of a man who holds some kind of grudge against him, he unwisely pursues his own investigation. Contrasting characters then emerge to demonstrate the avenues open to magistrates to exercise common-sense justice while at the same time coping with the sorry state of the criminal justice system.

Richard Trahair is a retired chartered surveyor and a parish organist for more than thirty years. As Presiding Justice in the local Magistrates’ Court, he served for a quarter of a century enduring government incompetence and exercising justice and common sense alongside his colleagues. He is the author of three novels and has also published his reminiscences of managing Church property.