The Crime Of The Opera House

When the prompter falls dead during the second act of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre during a matinee performance at the Metropolitan Opera, as one can imagine, it causes quite a stir, especially when it is discovered that the deceased, a one time world famous Heldentenor has been poisoned. The detective assigned to the case, Lt. Quentin, finds himself immersed in the back stage drama of professional opera. His task is made more difficult when he decides that it had really been the star soprano who had been the intended victim, and not the prompter. Will he be able to solve the case before there is another Metropolitan Opera Murder?

Margaret Truman, who knows where all the bodies are buried inside the Beltway, has written her most thrilling novel of suspense yet. Murder at the Opera features the popular crime-fighting couple Mac Smith and his wife, Annabel Reed-Smith, as they navigate the glitz, glamour, and grime that is Washington, D.C. 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 for 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.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, but, you'll never be bored with Brother Jerome. Summoned to his favorite Aunt's senior residence in England, with the promise of being told a deep family secret, Chip, Brother Jerome finds himself embroiled in a murder. Interacting with the residents of the Opera House, a home for retired entertainers, he meets the Lord and Lady of the house, as well as the sometimes off beat characters who live there. Teaming up with Chief Inspector David Reason, Chip assists any way he can in the solving of the case.Learning of his parentage, Chip returns to his monastery in North Carolina, only to be called to Charlotte by his Bishop. While living in the Bishop's opulent home, he is confronted by dark secrets of subterfuges, and has to come to terms with his own crisis of faith and calling.Reaching an exciting, and unexpected denouncement, Murder at the Opera House will hold you spellbound while everyone's favorite monk unravels the complication of his life, and solves a few mysteries along the way.