Murder at the Opera - (Capital Crimes) by Margaret Truman (Paperback)

About the Book

When a young soprano is found murdered, life imitates opera, and suddenly all the performers seem to have something to hide The murder investigation is in a race against time mere weeks before opening night, a black-tie gala at which everyone--including the President himself--will be in the seats.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Praise for Margaret Truman

"Truman 'knows the forks' in the nation's capital and how to pitchfork her readers into a web of murder and detection."
-The Christian Science Monitor

Murder at The Washington Tribune

"Hooks the reader immediately."
-The Oklahoman

Murder at Union Station

"Truman has produced another knowing look at Washington politics. She, of all people, should know her characters well, and she draws them with style."
-The Dallas Morning News

Murder at Ford's Theatre

"Dead-on descriptions of Washington's most crack-ridden streets and exclusionary shindigs . . . Readers who enjoy travelogue, gossip, and social commentary in their whodunits will enjoy Murder at Ford's Theatre."
-USA Today

About the Author

Margaret Truman won faithful readers with her works of biography and fiction, particularly her ongoing series of Capital Crimes mysteries. Her novels let us into the corridors of power and privilege, and poverty and pageantry, in the nation's capital. She was the author of many nonfiction books, including The President's House, in which she shares some of the secrets and history of the White House where she once resided. She lived in Manhattan and passed away in 2008.