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A review by cornerofmadness
Murder at the Opera by Margaret Truman
2.0
More like 2.5 stars. It was too long, too overly complicated. Mysteries don't need to be 400 pages and this one definitely didn't. It had three plots, yes they eventually dovetailed but at least one was not needed, if not two of them.
The main plot is Charise Lee, an opera student is killed at the D.C. Opera house and Mac Smith and his wife Annabel who are involved in the opera scene (both former lawyers) get swept up in it because the opera committee thinks the police need a hand. Also in this is Pawkins a former homicide detective turned PI in retirement, also a complete opera lover.
In the back ground we have a spy thriller thing going on in the Middle East that literally was the most boring thing ever with a bunch of side characters you couldn't care about because not enough time is given to them.
Then you have the missing songs written by Mozart-Hayden that went missing in D.C. after being 'discovered' at a yard sale in England and been sent to a DC university for authentication and the owner was murdered like 6 years before.
Mac and Annabel do zero detecting and they're the main pov characters. The two cops were pretty stereotypical (especially the older overweight African American one) and then the PI who starts out as a nice guy opera loving detective becomes a misogynistic jerk by the end. Don't get me started on the ending. It did something imo a mystery should never do.
Also it was SO repetitive. How many times was she going to tell us what a supernumerary was in opera? At least once a chapter apparently.
It was eye rolling in that everyone instantly fell in love with opera. I was fine with Pawkins and Annabel loving it and then Mac falling for it but literally every character was already in love with opera and those who didn't heard it once and couldn't get enough. Really? Does that match anyone's opera experience?
Even worse was the body shaming in this. Countless times we heard the slight Asian murder victim was too thin to be an opera singer. Opera singers need to be fat. On the other hand the cop is also constantly body shamed for being fat. I'm like okay yeah enough with this.
I haven't read others in the series though I was tempted. I looked through and it seems they only interconnect because they're in D.C. from blurbs they appear to be different characters. That said after listening to the audio book of this, I don't think i'll be looking for others.
The main plot is Charise Lee, an opera student is killed at the D.C. Opera house and Mac Smith and his wife Annabel who are involved in the opera scene (both former lawyers) get swept up in it because the opera committee thinks the police need a hand. Also in this is Pawkins a former homicide detective turned PI in retirement, also a complete opera lover.
In the back ground we have a spy thriller thing going on in the Middle East that literally was the most boring thing ever with a bunch of side characters you couldn't care about because not enough time is given to them.
Then you have the missing songs written by Mozart-Hayden that went missing in D.C. after being 'discovered' at a yard sale in England and been sent to a DC university for authentication and the owner was murdered like 6 years before.
Mac and Annabel do zero detecting and they're the main pov characters. The two cops were pretty stereotypical (especially the older overweight African American one) and then the PI who starts out as a nice guy opera loving detective becomes a misogynistic jerk by the end. Don't get me started on the ending. It did something imo a mystery should never do.
Also it was SO repetitive. How many times was she going to tell us what a supernumerary was in opera? At least once a chapter apparently.
It was eye rolling in that everyone instantly fell in love with opera. I was fine with Pawkins and Annabel loving it and then Mac falling for it but literally every character was already in love with opera and those who didn't heard it once and couldn't get enough. Really? Does that match anyone's opera experience?
Even worse was the body shaming in this. Countless times we heard the slight Asian murder victim was too thin to be an opera singer. Opera singers need to be fat. On the other hand the cop is also constantly body shamed for being fat. I'm like okay yeah enough with this.
I haven't read others in the series though I was tempted. I looked through and it seems they only interconnect because they're in D.C. from blurbs they appear to be different characters. That said after listening to the audio book of this, I don't think i'll be looking for others.