Funeral of Figaro

 

Funeral of Figaro by Ellis Peters  192 pp.

Ellis Peters, the pseudonym of British author Edith Mary Pargeter, is best known for her series of mysteries featuring the medieval monk Brother Cadfael. This mystery is not part of that series. Instead it features an opera company homed in the Leander Theatre. Because of the death of the previous bass-baritone a replacement was hired for the roll of Figaro, one known to the European opera world. But Marc Chartrier has a problematic history involving his actions during WWII. Those actions affected multiple members of the cast in different ways. When Chartrier is stabbed with a rapier in a hidden part of the scenery during a performance the culprit has to be narrowed from several cast members. In fact, the number of suspects increases rapidly as the police investigate. In the end the police name the killer, one who may or may not have been the true murderer. I'm not sure I'm happy with the way this one ended.

Falling in Love

 

Falling in Love by Donna Leon  256 pp.

Opera diva, Flavia Petrelli appeared in the very first Commissario Brunetti mystery. She returns to Venice and the 24th book in the series. She is performing at La Fenice Opera House in the lead of "Tosca." She returns to her dressing room to find it inundated with yellow roses. This has been happening during her tour across Europe. The excess has also spilled into the apartment she is using meaning the culprit knows where she is staying. The instigator is not just an avid fan, but someone obsessed and stalking her. Brunetti gets involved after a young singer whose voice Flavia had taken an interest in is attacked on the street and ends up hospitalized. The assailants words during the attack leads Brunetti to believe it is connected to Flavia's stalker. Of course, while all this is going on there are the usual problems within the police Questura/Headquarters which Brunetti and Signorina Elettra conspire to get around the evil Lt. Scarpa and who suspended  another officer thereby docking his pay. Stealth and hiding places around the stage, allow them to thwart the attempted murderer with Flavia only suffering a minor injury.

The Phoenix Crown

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn & Janie Chang, 400 pages

It's April 1906 and opera singer Gemma Garland has just arrived in San Francisco ahead of a series of performances in the Met's touring production of Carmen (in the chorus, but hey, it's still the Met!). When she gets into town, however, she learns that her friend, artist Nellie, with whom she was going to stay, has disappeared. Soon, however, Gemma has found herself a wealthy patron and is set to be the toast of the town. Meanwhile, orphaned Suling is doing everything she can to avoid her gambling-addicted uncle from selling her off in marriage. What neither Gemma nor Suling can predict, however, is the deadly earthquake that will destroy the city in the middle of all of their plans.

In the afterword to this book, the authors note that the more they learned about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the more things they wanted to include in the book, and how hard it was to take things out. After trying to summarize it above, I'm realizing that they could have cut out several other elements to make it a bit less convoluted. The characters and overall plot were interesting (I'd definitely read a book about real-life botanist Alice Eastwood, fiction or nonfiction!), though I don't think the earthquake itself added much to the story as a whole — and considering the importance of setting in historical fiction, that's not a great thing. It was an interesting book, but it won't be topping my list of favorite historical fictions.

*This book comes out Feb. 13.

Spur of the Moment

Spur of the Moment by David Linzee (2016) 323 pages

Some weeks ago I read an early mystery by local author David Linzee (Death in Connecticut) and at the suggestion of a colleague, I've read this later one. Renata Radleigh is a British-born opera singer who is in St. Louis to perform a minor role in an unusual take on Carmen. Her brother works as a fundraiser for the St. Louis Opera, and he is ecstatic to have convinced Helen Stromberg-Brand, an Adams University researcher, to make a huge donation that will help the ailing opera company. Renata and her brother Don have a history of antagonism for each other, and she is as surprised as anyone when she attacks officers who come to arrest her brother for Helen's murder. Renata is luckily not charged in the attack, and she begins to make her own inquiries into possible murder suspects, to the annoyance of the detective. The solution to the murder is not at all obvious, not matter what the detective thinks. Helen's marriage was floundering and she had some issues regarding her research into a much-needed drug. She had garnered a named professorship at the university, beating out Ransome Chase, a now-bitter colleague who was working for the eradication of  a different disease. And what's going on with Keith Bryson, a hugely rich venture-capitalist who had partnered in Helen's research?

I found this book an enjoyable read, not only for twists and turns in the solution, but also for the local flavor of the St. Louis area.