Ransom at the Opera

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Opera fans will welcome this seventh book in Hunter's witty series featuring police detective Jeremy Ransom and sidekick Emily Charters (Ransom Unpaid, etc.), set on opening night at Chicago's brand-new Sheridan Center for the Performing Arts. Riccardo Nuevo and Maria Cortez, two brilliant but relatively unknown singers, are playing Don Jose and Carmen in a controversial and innovative production of Carmen. Riccardo's being hopelessly in love with Maria adds verisimilitude to their performance, for she has eyes only for her manager--and anyone else who can further her career. In the last act, Don Jose raises his knife to strike Carmen, drops it and falls dead at her feet. That's not the way it's supposed to happen! Emily, who's in the audience, knows immediately that Riccardo has been murdered, probably poisoned. When the engaging, low-key Jeremy gets assigned the case, he's dismayed to find that, besides the principals of the cast, there are 30 members of the chorus and another 20 extras, as well as stagehands and crew. It's obvious that this is an "inside job," but where could the poison have come from? Riccardo hadn't anything to drink on stage, and the two coffee cups in his dressing room contained--just coffee. The plot has enough twists to keep the reader guessing, with just about every major character a suspect at some point. Writing in a suitably "operatic" style, Hunter delivers a dramatic and fully satisfying denouement. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The new Chicago performing arts center debuts with an innovative new opera company's Carmen, an apparently wonderful partnership. Bickering and resentment will out, however: the center's director depends on the continued good will of a self-important, intrusive philanthropist, while the opera company relies on a manipulative and destructive prima donna diva. The much-anticipated murder occurs on opening night, with series protagonist Emily Charters (Ransom for a Holiday) as witness. Soon, she and Detective Jeremy Ransom are working together again to narrow the field of suspects. A smooth plot line, with pendant personal subplots and a moment or two of snide humor, recommends this for most collections. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The seventh attempt (Ransom Unpaid, 1999, etc.) to recivilize Chicago begins with sweet-as-elderberry-wine Emily Charters witnessing the death of the tenor in the spanking new Sheridan Center's premiere production of Carmen. A new, equally stylized production swiftly takes Bizet's place offstage, starring Emily and her faux-grandson, police detective Jeremy Ransom, as the lead snoops, and featuring as suspects the likes of Maria Cortez, the temperamental diva who may have been the murderer's real target and who, at any rate, was about to defect to another opera company; the male and female second leads, highly ambitious and lovelorn respectively; the blithely chatty makeup artist, who, like the proverbial hairdresser, knew most everybody's secrets; and the Center's youthful director, Edward Carnegie, who was hiding his past romantic dalliance with Sheridan Foundation director Steven Sheridan-who, in turn, was grieving for his dying lover and their chance to escape the tentacles of his oppressive mother. While waiting for the toxicology reports, Ransom surveys the backstage area, the hotel accommodations, the local florist, asking politely as you please for any information anyone might have. Then, in a between-chapters bit of insight, he settles on the culprit in time to join Miss Emily for that famous Chicago mainstay, tea and cookies.