Requiem for a mezzo

the long version

A show-stopping performance ... With dashing Scotland Yard detective Alec Fletcher at her side, Daisy Dalrymple is enjoying a splendid performance of Verdi's Requiem featuring her neighbour Muriel Westlea's celebrated sister, Bettina, when what emerges from the star's gifted vocal chords is literally a dying gasp. The doomed diva was notoriously difficult and had more than her share of enemies, including a philandering tenor, a burly Russian bass and even her own vocal coach husband, with whom she had a turbulent relationship. Did one of them poison the singer? Or was it someone determined to see that Daisy's investigation ends on as bitter a note as Bettina's last performance ...?