Bringing Murder and Music Together—Fictionally Speaking By Erica Miner

An opera-loving friend of mine was at a rehearsal where the soprano was singing her death scene while her 12-year-old son was waiting patiently in the back. My friend asked him what he thought about his mother's death scene, and the kid said, “It's opera. Everybody dies.”

I admit to being an opera lover, even after 21 years experiencing the good, the bad, and the ugly as a violinist at the Metropolitan Opera. There’s something for everyone in this unique art form, the perfect combination of music and drama. Opera is not only dramatic; it’s fascinating, exciting, and fun. It can also kill you—fictionally, at least.

While at the Met, I took note of the many nefarious goings-on there as grist for my writing mill. But perhaps the most important thing I learned is that what goes on offstage can be far more dramatic than what happens onstage: people committing suicide by taking a flying leap off the top of the balcony; people stepping into an empty elevator shaft and plunging to their death; fist fights in the locker room backstage; and more. I’ve discovered in writing my opera mystery series that a theatre is the perfect place for mischief and mayhem. In my books, I give people an insider’s view of what happens behind the scenes at a theatre. It’s murderous back there.

At any given time there can be as many as 4,000 people working at the Met, all in different jobs simultaneously, and almost always at odds with each other: the international opera superstars, comprimarios (minor solo singers), orchestra musicians, chorus, ballet, wardrobe, wigs, makeup, stage directors, set designers, stagehands, electricians, crew—all the way up to (Lord help us) Management. And believe me, there’s no love lost between any of them. The place is like an operatic Tower of Babel. It’s amazing any music gets done there at all.

Take the Orchestra, for instance: 100 neurotic musicians, thrown together in a hole in the ground with no light, no air, 7 days a week. You see more of these people than your own families. Sooner or later, someone’s going to want to kill someone.

 That’s how my Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series was born. Julia, a young violinist who has a penchant for getting entangled in murder investigations at the opera, is somewhat based on myself when I first started out at the Met—though she is far braver than I ever could be. In Prelude to Murder, she uses her smarts to escape a ruthless killer—not to mention a few ghosts.

 As for me, what could be better than killing off the people who made my life miserable (fictionally, of course)? The wannabe stars, detestable divas, snarky stagehands, and especially my aforementioned orchestra colleagues (though admittedly I did get along with most of them). Plus, when you think about it, opera stories are some of the bloodiest, most violent ever written. What better way to bring murder and music together?

 So, yes. Opera is exciting, fascinating, and so much fun to write about. Because the only thing better than a great story—is a great story with music.

About Prelude to Murder:

Young, prodigious Metropolitan Opera violinist Julia Kogan, having survived her entanglement in an investigation of her mentor’s murder on the podium, and a subsequent violent, life-threatening attack of a ruthless killer, is called upon for a key musical leadership position at the Santa Fe Opera. But at the spectacular outdoor theatre in the shadows of the mysterious New Mexican Sangre de Cristo Mountains, she witnesses yet other operatic murders, both onstage and off. Dark and painful secrets emerge as, ignoring warnings from her colleagues and from Larry, her significant other, Julia plunges into her own investigation of the killing. Ghostly apparitions combine with some of the most bloody and violent operas in the repertoire to make Julia question her own motives for searching for the killer. But this time the threat to her life originates from a source she never would have imagined.

About Erica:

After 21 years as a violinist with the Metropolitan Opera, Erica Miner is now an award-wining author, screenwriter, arts journalist, and lecturer based in the Pacific Northwest. Her debut novel, Travels with My Lovers, won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Erica’s fanciful plot fabrications reveal the dark side of the fascinating world of opera in her Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series. Aria for Murder, published by Level Best Books in 2022, was a finalist in the 2023 Eric Hoffer Awards. The second in the series, Prelude to Murder, published in 2023, glowingly reviewed by Kirkus Reviews (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/erica-miner/prelude-to-murder/), finds the violinist in heaps of trouble in the desert at the Santa Fe Opera. The next murderous sequel takes place at San Francisco Opera. As a writer-lecturer, Erica has given workshops for Sisters in Crime; Los Angeles Creative Writing Conference; EPIC Group Writers; Write on the Sound; Fields End Writer’s Community; Savvy Authors; and numerous libraries on the west coast.  https://www.ericaminer.com   

ISBNs:

ISBN-10: ‎ 1685124429

ISBN-13 : ‎ 978-1685124427

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 Buy Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Prelude-Murder-Julia-Kogan-Mystery/dp/1685124429/ref=monarch_sidesheet

Barnes and Noble:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/prelude-to-murder-erica-miner/1144067662?ean=9781685124427

Third Place Books:

https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781685124427