Sounds of Murder tells a tale of academic intrigue and death.  At Grace University, a small southern college, no one in the Psychology Department likes Charlotte Clark, so no one is particularly upset when she is found murdered in the department’s million-dollar computer lab.  But because she discovered the body, Associate Professor Pamela Barnes feels obligated to find Charlotte’s killer, and when she discovers a recording of the murder that was accidentally produced during Charlotte’s struggle with the killer, she begins her own investigation.  Along the way, Pamela agonizes with her own conscience, fights her growing fear, attempts to understand her mysterious Department Chair, keeps her curious colleagues informed, placates her protective husband, and avoids antagonizing a local rube detective who belittles her efforts--all while she struggles to make sense of the sounds on the recording. As she gets deeper and deeper into her analysis—trying to connect what she hears in the recording with sounds from people (and potential killers) around her--she gets closer and closer to the killer, who unbeknownst to her, is observing Pamela’s efforts to find the killer, and resolving to prevent her.  When Pamela finally identifies the one sound on the tape that positively identifies the killer, she works with the detective to trick the killer into a confession.