The Absolutely Appalling Opera Murders : A Walter Tinner Mystery

Walter Tinner, who considers himself the world's greatest tenor (even if no one else does) comes to visit his cousin, Amber, and discovers to his horror that she wants him to throw in his two cents regarding the amateur opera society's production of Mascagni's "L'amico Fritz." Not only does Walter have to argue with the rather strange members of the society -- all of whom have "operatic" names and some of whom impugn his singing ability -- but it's the last straw when one of them turns up murdered. And then another .. and another. Will Walter be able to solve these ghastly killings before somebody else bites the dust -- even Walter himself?

With the help of detective Wilma Banky, Tinner gets his man -- or woman!

Author Enrico Arrivederci once sang on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House - when he was not supposed to - and was nearly banned for life.

Little Enrico was one of the crowd of urchins in Giordano's "Andrea Chenier", and was never supposed to sing, but the cute little fellow decided to join in during the climax anyway.

Renata Tebaldi gave him a good spanking, and Mario Del Monaco chased him around backstage hoping to give him a thrashing for ruining that beautiful climactic duet.

On the other hand, Placido Domingo once gave Enrico a pat on the head, while Luciano Pavarotti pinched his cheeks - which was strange as this was years later and Enrico was in his forties at the time.