Murder at the Opera: A Capital Crimes Novel

by Margaret Truman

Hardcover, 2006

Status

Available

Call number

F Tru

Call number

F Tru

Barcode

3711

Publication

Ballantine Books (2006), Edition: First Edition, 336 pages

Description

It ain't over till the fat lady sings...but the show hasn't even started yet when a diva is found dead. The soprano in question, a petite young Asian Canadian named Charise Lee, was scarcely a star at the Washington National Opera. But when the aspiring singer is stabbed in the heart backstage during rehearsals, she suddenly takes center stage. Georgetown law professor Mac Smith thought he'd just be carrying a rapier in Tosca as a favor to his beloved Annabel, but now they're both being pressured by the panicked theater board to unmask a killer. Providing accompaniment will be former homicide detective, current P.I., and eternal opera fan Raymond Pawkins. Soon the Smiths find themselves dangerously improvising among an expanding cast of suspects with all sorts of scores to settle. What they uncover is an increasingly complex case reaching far beyond Washington to a dark world of informers and terror alerts in Iraq, and climaxing on a fateful night at the opera attended by none other than the President himself.… (more)

Media reviews

Library Journal
Truman's mysteries (Murder at the Washington Tribune) are gentle reads that offer an enormous amount of insider information (naturally, from the daughter of President Harry Truman) about the Washington, DC, institution in which the murder takes place. Here we follow her into the Kennedy Center to
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watch the behind-the-scenes preparations for the opera Tosca. One of the extras, or supers (supernumeraries), is Mac Smith, a prominent area attorney-turned-college professor. When the body of a promising young singer is found on the set, the show must go on. How Mac and his wife discover the truth behind the young woman's death and save the day makes this a suspenseful page-turner that surprises and delights. If your patrons are looking for a Truman readalike, point them to Mary Jane Clark and Elizabeth Adler. Truman lives in Manhattan.
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Original publication date

2006

User reviews

LibraryThing member LDVoorberg
Very flat stereotypes for characters. Pathetically predictable. The terrorist side plot was very unimaginative and boring; giving it narrative space did nothing for the story except make it longer.
Good thing it was an audio book and I could multi-task, otherwise it would have been a waste of time.
LibraryThing member CasaBooks
A favorite mystery series.
Shared these books with my Mom and others.
Easy reads, good behind the scenes info on Washington DC
Read in 2007.
LibraryThing member Carl_Alves
As the name of the novel suggests, the book starts off with a murder at the Washington National Opera. The murder victim is a young opera singer. McKenzie Smith, a former lawyer and now a law professor, is unofficially helping to investigate the case. In parallel, the Metro police department is
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investigating a case that goes beyond simple murder. The murder ties into a terrorist plot involving the assassination of prominent American political figures, including the president of the United States.

Perhaps the most irritating aspect of this novel was the author’s love for the opera and how it permeates all throughout the story. Normally, an author’s passion for a subject is a good thing, but in this case, every time she pontificates about the awesomeness of opera, it really took me out of the story. It became about preaching about how opera is great, and the story took a backseat. As for the plot, I didn’t find it to be terribly believable. It was hard to suspend disbelief at times, and there were too many coincidences involved, especially involving the private detective and former homicide detective that the National Opera uses to perform the investigation. The mystery was fairly mediocre. In all, I would recommend skipping this novel. There are better mysteries out there than this one.

Carl Alves – author of Conjesero
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LibraryThing member kakadoo202
Boilerplate book. Lots of clichees

Rating

(43 ratings; 3.3)

Pages

336
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