A skillfully written whodunit of operatic proportions.
An opera becomes the scene of real-life murder in Miner’s musical mystery sequel.
Young violinist Julia Kogan is thrilled when she’s offered the position of concertmaster at the Santa Fe Opera’s production of Alban Berg’s dramatic opera Lulu. The violin solos are notoriously difficult, but she’s happy to take a break from her regular job at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, where she recently helped solve the murder of her beloved mentor and conductor, Abel Trudeau (in 2022’s Aria for Murder). Accompanied by her boyfriend, New York City police officer Larry Somers, she’s enthralled by the beauty of New Mexico and intrigued by Native American artifacts. However, she finds the opera company to be full of petty jealousies, and she becomes anxious about a shadowy, elusive figure whom some of her fellow musicians believe is the ghost of the opera’s founder, John O’Hea Crosby. The violent themes of Berg’s opera overlap with real life when the volatile and high-strung Italian diva Emilia Tosti is discovered stabbed to death backstage—and Julia’s friend Marin Crane is found holding the knife. Now the whole company—singers, orchestra members, stagehands, and directors—come under suspicion as Santa Fe police detective Stella Peregrine sorts through their tangled relationships and the complex history of the opera company. Julia and Larry must prove Marin’s innocence and find the real culprit. Miner, who is a former longtime violinist for the Metropolitan Opera, presents an insider’s knowledge of operas and opera companies that enhances this delightful mystery. It features a compelling plot and intriguing characters, and readers are certain to appreciate the book’s beautiful evocation of Santa Fe’s haunted landscape (“the mountains glowing in the distance, the iridescent sunset, and the crescent moon floating among the stars when the sky turned inky black”). They’re also likely to enjoy the author’s clever combination of the opera Lulu with the events of the mystery.
A skillfully written whodunit of operatic proportions.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781685124427
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Level Best Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.
A routine break-in at the home of Sûreté homicide chief Armand Gamache leads slowly but surely to the revelation of a potentially calamitous threat to all Québec.
At first it seems as if nothing at all triggered the burglar alarm at Gamache’s home in Three Pines; it was literally a false alarm. It’s not till he receives a package containing his summer jacket that Gamache realizes someone really did get into his house, choosing to steal exactly this one item and return it with a cryptic note referring to “some malady…water” and “Angelica stems.” Having already refused to meet with Jeanne Caron, chief of staff to Marcus Lauzon, a powerful politician who’s already taken vengeance on Gamache and his family for not expunging his child’s criminal record, Gamache now agrees to meet with Charles Langlois, a marine biologist with ties to Caron who confesses to a leading role in stealing Gamache’s jacket. Their meeting ends inconclusively for Gamache, who’s convinced that Langlois is hiding something weighty, and all too conclusively for Langlois, who’s killed by a hit-and-run driver as he leaves. The news that Langlois had been investigating a water supply near the abbey of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups sends Gamache scurrying off to the abbey, where the plot steadily thickens until he’s led to ask how “an old recipe for Chartreuse” can possibly be connected to “a terrorist plot to poison Québec’s drinking water.” That’s a great question, and answering it will take the second half of this story, which spins ever more intricate connections among leading players that become deeply unsettling.
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250328137
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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