A diva doesn’t show up for the biggest opening night of her life.
Catarina Velosi is the kind of woman who doesn’t let go of you. Her drama teacher, Victoria Givens, keeps her house filled with mementos of her most gifted pupil. Alfonso Reventon, the former lover who wrote Our Lady of the Barrio for her, is carrying a torch that’s making his wife Marisela jealous. Hollywood producer Barry F. Mancuso is underwriting her credit card purchases. Even Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond’s own lover, music promoter Silvio Aguilar, has a past with Catarina, the kind that won’t stay past. So when the star misses the opening curtain for the debut of Alfonso’s play, the police looking for her have lots of other people to keep an eye on too. As does Eve, who’s dealing with a leech of her own: Felice Morgan, a young black reporter new to the San Gabriel Valley section but not to the game of getting ahead. Considering what a sharpie Eve’s been in pursuit of earlier stories (Last Lullaby, 2004, etc.), it’s sad to see her watch so helplessly as avid, sincere Felice moves in on her turf, her contacts and her story. Then Felice moves in too far, and suddenly the two reporters have to rely on each other to get the truth.
The most streamlined, even conventional, of Eve’s four cases to date.
