New Broadway Mystery Novel, The Sound of Murder, Now Available For Pre-order

The new musical theatre-themed mystery novel, The Sound of Murder, is now available for pre-order at major online booksellers.

The book is the first in a new series, “Musicals Are Murder,” which place made-up crimes against a backdrop of real Broadway history. While the murders are fictional, everything else in the story is based on fact.

Using late 1950s Broadway as a backdrop, “The Sound of Murder: Musicals Are Murder #1” brings something unique to the mystery genre: a book aimed squarely at musical theatre fans. “It's a bold  choice to create a murder mystery fantasy around the facts of an out-of-town tryout of a much loved musical – and one whose movie version remains the most popular musical film of all time,” says Ted Chapin, former President of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, calling the result, “A total surprise – and a delight!”

The new book begins the night of the world premiere of “The Sound of Music” in New Haven and ends opening night on Broadway. When the star's understudy is found dead in a hotel room under graffiti reading, “How do you solve a problem like Maria?”, assistant stage manager Lee Solomon – cast in the role of company sleuth – must interact with real-life theatre legends like Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Mary Martin, and more to uncover the killer.

“The Sound of Murder” represents the culmination of a longtime dream for author Zellnik. “It was nearly 20 years ago when I first had the idea to write a mystery that would draw upon my first passion, musical theatre. But since I was so busy as a composer, I never found the time to devote to it. I'd occasionally jot down a plot idea or a few stray sentences, but it wasn't until the Covid lockdown that I finally had the time to sit and write the entire thing.” Zellnik's months of research for “The Sound of Murder” included reading numerous theatre histories and biographies/autobiographies of the key players, as well as conducting personal interviews with members of the Broadway community who still remember the late 1950s. He was also able to draw on his own professional experiences to add verisimilitude to life behind the scenes at a musical. “Because of my love for Broadway history,” he says, “and veneration of the people involved in this particular musical, it was important to me that those elements of the book be as true to the facts as fiction allows.”

“The Sound of Murder” will be released April 3rd – the eBook will retail for $9.99, paperback for $19.99.

The book is currently available for pre-order now Amazon, Apple Books and BarnesAndNoble.com.

Eager readers can download a free sample of the first two chapters right now, by signing up at MusicalsAreMurder.com

Musicals Are Murder will offer readers a “fly on the wall” view of the creation of the world's most famous musicals alongside the pleasures of a traditional mystery novel. Each book will feature a different classic title from the musical theatre canon, blending made-up crimes and real Broadway history (Zellnik is currently writing book #2, which will center on the original 1964 “Fiddler on the Roof”).

The notion emerged when Zellnik noticed a gap in the historical mystery category, a genre he is a longtime fan of. “There are Regency mysteries with Jane Austen as a sleuth, WWII-era mysteries featuring Eleanor Roosevelt and Winston Churchill...I could go on. But no mysteries that draw on musical theatre history, or include people whose work I grew up idolizing as characters – people like Rodgers & Hammerstein, Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince, Stephen Sondheim and more.”

The amateur sleuth at the center of the series is an assistant stage manager, Lee Solomon. “I chose to make my detective an ASM,” says Zellnik, “because it's one of the few positions on a big musical that interacts with everyone – actors, creative team, tech crew, etc. And stage managers are famously the people on a production who know where, metaphorically speaking, ‘all the bodies are buried'.”

Joseph Zellnik is a theatrical composer best known for the off-Broadway hit “Yank!” in 2010 (book and lyrics by David Zellnik), which received 7 Drama Desk nominations (including nods for score and Best Musical) and Best Musical nominations from the Outer Critics' Circle and Lucille Lortel Foundation; the show has gone on to productions in numerous cities around the US, as well as in London, Manchester, Brisbane, and Rio de Janeiro, where it won the 2017 CENYM Award for Best Musical.

In the literary sphere, Joseph's other credits include co-authoring the upcoming “Periodic Table of Broadway Musicals” with husband Andrew Gerle (Union Square & Co./Fall 2025). He also co-writes the Libby Seale series of historical mysteries, set in Portland, OR in the 1890s.