PILOT Mountain, North Carolina, is a town of only 2,500 inhabitants with a 1950s mindset doing its best to cope with the social upheavals of the 1970s.

Miss Wilma, a widowed music teacher and organist, suddenly finds her quiet and long-empty house full of people -- and trouble, including a broken-hearted pregnant daughter, a clueless son-in-law, a confused granddaughter and eventually her daughter's lover.

In two unsettling and chaotic days Miss Wilma finds herself making breakfast for a murder suspect, hiding erotic photographic evidence in her organ bench, going out on her first date in 20 years -- and even solving a crime.

With really strong characterisation and warm and engaging writing, The Piano Teacher by Lynn York is a delicious read for women of all ages.

Lynn lives in North Carolina, and is well qualified to write about the state and its people. The Piano Teacher is her first novel.

The Piano Teacher by Lynn York (Published by Headline at £18.99)