Face the Music, also known as The Favorite Piece, is a mystery short story by Isaac Asimov.
Part of the Union Club series, it was first published in the April 1983 issue of Gallery magazine and later collected in The Union Club Mysteries.
Summary[]
At the Union Club, a disagreement about Gilbert and Sullivan leads Griswold to recount a case involving a sophisticated ring of contract killers. A police captain consulted him, frustrated that his investigation was stalled. The killers had a clever method: they committed murders during live performances, using the cover of audience applause to enter, shoot a victim with a poisoned dart, and leave unseen. The police had intercepted a cryptic conversation between the killers, which included a man singing the line "I've got a little list" from The Mikado and mentioning "the favorite piece."
The captain knew a murder was planned for an upcoming performance in the city but could not identify the target, the venue, or the specific show. His investigation had narrowed it down to three possible Gilbert and Sullivan operettas being performed that month: Iolanthe, Princess Ida, and H.M.S. Pinafore. He lacked the resources to cover all nineteen performances and needed Griswold to interpret the clue "the favorite piece" to identify the one show where the killers would strike.
Griswold deduced that the clue was a pun. The word "list" in the lyric was a homophone for "Liszt," referring to the composer Franz Liszt. His most famous and universally recognized work is the "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2". Griswold concluded the killers were not targeting a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta at all, but a Philharmonic concert featuring that specific piece. The police staked out the concert, apprehended the killer during the applause for Liszt's rhapsody, and dismantled the murder ring.
Characters[]
- Griswold
- Club Member (the narrator)
- Baranov
- Jennings
- The Police Captain
- The Contract Killers
- The Gilbert and Sullivan Expert
- The Intended Victim
- The Intended Victim's Wife
Historical Figures Mentioned[]
- Sir Arthur Sullivan
- W.S. Gilbert
- Franz Liszt
See Also[]
List of short stories by Isaac Asimov