A SISTER  IN THE CHOIR
 
                    The story of a piano playing singer, CHANTEUSE, is told in the first person, interspersed with lyrics of familiar songs from the American Songbook.  We are told of her life and the people she encounters, as she matures, through ordinary and extraordinary events.  Clubs, gangsters, and personalities from the Harlem Renaissance, Weimar Berlin, Paris, and the Catskill Borsch Belt provide the backdrop upon which this story unfolds.  Within the first half of the book, we learn that in her youth, she is raped and left for dead and is nursed back to health by charitable nuns.  Against all odds she encounters the man who raped her and while performing in front of an audience, she shoots and kills him. 
                    The second half of the novel finds our singer in court for murder.  There is an air of mystery surrounding the procedure and the murder.  During the trial, political intrigue and evidence juggle to explain her guilt or innocence.  A surprise bit of evidence exonerates her and she is released to resume her career.  Years later she herself finds out the truth within the events of that fateful day.