For jazz pianist Evan Horne, things couldn't be better: His hand has healed, he's getting gigs at some of the southern California clubs, and he's even been approached about a recording contract. He couldn't have planned it any better. What he never considered, though, was that a murderer was going to add some startling improvisations....The dead sax player was someone many in the traditional jazz community wouldn't miss; he was, after all, just another Kenny G clone, someone capitalizing on an uneducated public's willingness to support "smooth jazz" while the heirs to the tradition and music of Charlie Parker - "Bird" to the real fans - were starved for work.It is immediately clear to Horne that the murderer must have known that Parker was one of the greatest and most influential men to wet a reed. That's the only reason the words "Bird Lives" were scrawled on the wall above the body, the same words that appeared on walls all over the world after Parker's death...and that soon appear next to a second corpse.With a tie-in like that, it is no surprise that the cops turn to Evan; he'd helped them before when death stalked the music community. This time, though, helping could cost him his future...and his life.