Ding Dong the Diva's Dead by Cat Melodia (Book Review)

Title: Ding Dong the Diva's Dead
Author: Cat Melodia
Publisher: Camel Press


About the Book: Deborah de Lille is an opera singer in the least grand sense. Debbie doesn't foresee a future beyond Handel Messiahs and low-budget tours ... until her agent finagles her a minor role with a small-town company. The artists assembled for this production of Offenbach's spooky opera, Tales of Hoffmann, have more than opera on their minds. Their games of love are not for the faint of heart, and the cutthroat atmosphere may have become literal. How far are they willing to go to advance their careers and even the score? The singer Debbie replaced died under suspicious circumstances, and after another minor player bows out suddenly, she is also given her role. Now she has two small roles that no one in their right mind would kill for. So, either someone isn't in their right mind, or the close calls threatening Debbie's safety are all unlucky coincidences. Add to the mix three preening tenors, a sexy lesbian director, a vengeful conductor, an obscenely rich and Hollywood-handsome general director, a fading Italian pop star, a trio of bitchy leading sopranos, an ambitious understudy, countless attention-starved underlings, an anti-opera terrorist group, a resident ghost, and Debbie's kooky and dysfunctional friends and family, and you have an opening night that promises to genuinely thrill and chill.



My thoughts:  As you can tell from above, this book had ALOT of characters many with unusual names - throw in with that all the characters they played in the Opera (and those unusual names) and there is a lot to remember.  I finally had to let go of trying to remember who everybody was and just go with the Debbie and the story.  It did keep me guessing right up to the end, but this could be because of my confusion over the characters  -lol. 

The story also contains lots of opera references, so if you are a fan of opera, you can probably relate to it better. This book was just okay for me, but more because of the heavy opera "stuff", not because of the writing or flow of the story.


About the author:  Cat Melodia is the nom de plume of a Seattle-based mezzo soprano and voice teacher. Like her heroine, she often wears the pants on stage. Three of her opera adaptations/translations have been performed at community colleges. She has a Bachelor’s Degree cum laude in German Literature from Princeton and a Master’s in Music.  You can find her at: Cat Melodia's Blog.

~I received a complimentary E-copy of this book from Tribute Books in exchange for my review.~

Ding Dong the Diva's Dead
Publisher/Publication Date: Camel Press, Jan 2011
ISBN:978-1603818070
246 pages