The Fifth Beethoven

Nate, 15, is admiring the Keynote, Vancouver’s newest luxury building, when he’s mugged by a Beethoven lookalike. And not only is he mugged, but two others are as well by the same Beethoven impersonator. But finding a Beethoven impersonator in the middle of the city shouldn’t be too hard right? Unfortunately, Mike Dante, the owner and developer of the Keynote, has hired several Beethoven impersonators to drum up business for his newest development so things don’t look too good for the victims.

But things are about to look up for Nate as Mike hears about his musical talents. Nate is a self-taught piano player who has dreams of making it big in the music business, and Mike wants to help make that a reality. So, he offers Nate a once in a lifetime opportunity – to play piano for his customers at the Keynote.

Nate accepts Mike’s offer right away and wants to repay him for his generosity by investigating the Beethoven robberies. Aided by Zandi, another victim who happens to hate Mr. Dante and his large-scale developments, these two junior sleuths uncover the darker side of luxury property development.

Overall, the main storyline revolving around the robberies worked well enough; however, with the addition of multiple, sometimes odd plot points, the novel started to veer off course. The idea that a 15-year-old, self-taught piano player was hired by a millionaire property developer to entertain his guests was unusual to say the least. Moreover, this aspect of the story would likely have very little appeal for the intended audience. If Jackson had fleshed out the real reason behind the robberies a bit more, The Fifth Beethoven would have teeth.