What's an oboe anyway?

My recently released An Ear for Murder features an oboist who goes home to upstate New York and winds up solving her friend's murder as well as helping her family get their oboe making business back on track.What's an oboe? Besides being an often used crossword clue, it's a slender woodwind instrument which looks most similar to a clarinet but uses a double reed.Think the duck in Peter and the Wolf. How did I come up with this story? For starters, my husband is an oboist. 35 years ago when we went back to my hometown for our wedding, we made a stop at a small oboe shop in Peekskill, New York. Laubin Oboes is one of a small handful of places where you can purchase a handcrafted oboe (though the wait is at least 10 years from the time it is ordered). The shop was founded in 1931 by Alfred Laubin, an oboist who played in the Hartford Symphony and experimented with oboe making in his free time before turning it into a full time occupation. His son, Paul Laubin, worked in the shop after school alongside his dad. In 1976 upon Alfred Laubin's death, Paul took over the business. Each of the 47 oboe keys is hand crafted and each hole hand drilled to precise, secret dimensions. In my story, Sara Baron discovers secret measurements to aid in her family's business (while solving a murder, of course). While not the main plot, I chose to incorporate the family oboe business into the first of my Sara Baron Tuned-In Mysteries! An Ear for Murder is currently on sale in ebook format from Amazon and is always free to read on KindleUnlimited!