Bantam of the Opera is the fifth book in Mary Daheim's bed-and-breakfast mystery series. Widowed Judith Grover McMonigle became the second Mrs. Joe Flynn in the fourth book, Dune to Death. See Chapter 7 of book four for a report of what happened to the toolshed. See the phone conversations in chapters 2, 8, 13, and 17 in that same book for why Gertrude Grover and Aunt Deb shouldn't continue sharing Aunt Deb's apartment. Can what's left of the toolshed be remodeled?

Our main plot is that famous opera singers Mario Pucetti and Inez Garcia-Green will be playing opposite each other in 'Traviata' at the opera house only a five minute drive from Hillside Manor Bed-and-Breakfast. The manor has been rented for the two weeks of the engagement to Mario Pucetti and his entourage. Mario is egotistical, short-tempered, accident-prone, and superstitious -- not the best combination for one of Judith's guests.

Something goes wrong on the opening night. If Judith wanted her current guests out of her hair before, she has even more reason now. What a time for Seattle's Homicide Division's Joe Flynn to be in New Orleans for a conference!

NOTES:

Chapter 1:

a. Judith's son, Mike McMonigle, spent the summer in his old room at Hillside Manor, while his girlfriend, Kristen, spent the summer in Gertrude's old room.

b. Hillside Manor, an Edwardian saltbox, sits among maple trees and two very tall conifers.

c. Gertrude had lived in the house since she married Donald Grover in 1936.

d. Joe Flynn and Bill Jones will be attending "It Starts With Hamsters," a conference about the social and criminal sociopathic personality. It's going to be held in New Orleans, (this book came out in 1993, well before Hurricane Katrina hit the city).

e. The only reason Judith is letting the famous tenor, Mario Pacetti and his company stay at Hillside Manor for two weeks is that the local opera company is paying triple her normal rates. (Maestro Dunkowitz, the conductor, refuses to host him after his last visit six years ago.)

f. Tomorrow night Judith's cousin, Renie Jones, is having a birthday party for her son, Tom (22). Tom appears to still be dating the young woman his mother refers to as 'Rich Beth' (see book three, Holy Terrors).

Chapter 2:

a. During her phone conversation with her mother, Judith is reminded about when she used to sit inside the fireplace so her smoke would go up the chimney almost 30 years ago (Judith quit years ago, Gertrude still smokes). Aunt Deb wants a new parakeet, but Gertrude still has evil cat Sweetums with her. Gertrude gets annoyed enough during the call to address her daughter as 'Judith Anne'.

b. Judith got a permanent [wave] at Chez Steve, the same salon where she got her gray hair colored in chapter 2 of Holy Terrors.

c. The guests have arrived in Mario Pacetti's mauve RV [recreational vehicle) with its California vanity license plates 'TEN-OR-ONE'.

d. Judith visited Italy in 1964. She uses a phrase from back then when she greets the first of her not-very-welcome guests.

e. Arlene Rankers brings over something that came from a window at Hillside Manor. It certainly isn't Judith's.

Chapter 3:

a. The only windows on the side of Hillside Manor that faces the Rankers' clothesline are in the hallway.

b. The Rankers moved next to the Grovers almost 30 years ago. (Arlene has red-gold curls.)

c. Judith mentions previous guests -- an engineer with a windup dog and a woman whose friends turned out to be inflatable dolls.
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d. Mugs is one of Arlene and Carl's two daughters.

e. Winston Plunkett, Mario Pacetti's business manager, tells Judith about some of his boss' previous accidents.

f. Judith's grandmother was from Baden-Baden, Germany. Herr Schuzendorf is from Hamburg (Judith was briefly there). Schuzendorf says his great-uncle was Emil Fischer.

g. Inez Garcia-Green, almost as famous as Pacetti, will also be singing in Traviata.

h. A rock is left on Judith's porch.

Chapter 4:

a. Some of the changes to Judith's bedroom since she married Joe are described.

b. Judith has a small safe in the basement. (Joe's gun is a .38 special)

c. Mario Pacetti has an accident.

d. Judith finds a note under her welcome mat. Bill Jones gives his opinion on it.

e. One of Grandma Grover's sayings was "You look like the pigs ate your little brother".

Chapter 5:

a. Renie explains who Emil Fischer was.

b. A phone call to the mothers reveals their latest quarrel (Aunt Deb was right) and their dipsomaniac friend, Alice Wilinski (Gus' widow) settled it.

c. The family photos on the living room fireplace mantel are described.

d. Mike looks like Donald Grover except for his red hair, and Dan McMonigle's mother had red hair.

e. Dr. Feldman, Renie's orthodontist, doesn't have as good a seat at the opera than Renie. Look here for why.

Chapter 6:

a. Inez Garcia-Green remarks on the Spanish galleon wallpaper in the front bedroom's bathroom she asked to use. (She and Justin Kerr visit the manor.) Renie explains where the "Green" in the soprano's name comes from.

b. Something is missing from Judith's refrigerator.

Chapter 7:

a. Renie recounts another argument between their mothers, this time over which year Aunt Opal had a boil on her backside. Judith's dad had the three-day measles in 1947, by the way. Mrs. Parker and Ignatz (her poodle), mentioned several times in Dune to Death, were there.

b. Woody Price's wife, Sondra, has two weeks left in her pregnancy. It's their first.

c. Judith's front parlor is described. Among other decorations, there's a silver crucifix that Judith bought at the Vatican in 1964.

d. Renie's dad, Uncle Cliff, was over 70 when he died of a massive heart attack.

Chapter 8:

a. Mrs. Pacetti says she worked in a flower shop when she was young. That was where she met Mario.

b. During her discussion with carpenter Skjoval Tolvang about renovations to the shed, Judith notices something that leads to mention of a gully on the northeast side of Heraldsgate Hill, over a mile from Judith's, but only 3 blocks from Renie and Bill. Raccoons live in the gully and go through the Jones' yard.

c. A call from Mike brings no joy.

Chapter 9:

a. When Judith drops in to visit Aunt Deb and her mother, they are having their weekly truce because lay Eucharistic ministers Mr. & Mrs. Ringo have brought them Holy Communion.

b. Inez Garcia-Green visits Amina Pacetti.

Chapter 10:

a. See book one, Just Desserts, for when a fortune-teller was murdered at Hillside Manor.

b. Plunkett lists Mario Pucetti's rituals before a performance.

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Chapter 11:

a. Judith and Renie have been fans of Cheers To You café since their college days.

b. Music critic Melissa Bargroom dishes the dirt on Pacetti and Garcia-Green, etc..

c. "Armistice Day" is the old name for "Veterans Day" (it changed in 1954).

d. Dan McMonigle once upended their mattress, sending Judith sliding feet first. (She landed in the basket of dirty laundry at the end of the bed.)

Chapter 12:

a. The outside space by the living room is where Judith has six rosebushes, lupines, two clumps of lavender, and lilies of the valley.

b. Judith visits her mother and Aunt Deb. Sweetums shows up. (Here is said to be orange instead of orange and white striped.)

c. Joe calls and chats about what he and Bill have been doing in New Orleans.

Chapter 13:

a. One of the guest rooms has a 100-year-old wedding ring quilt covering it.

b. The cousins visit the Hotel Plymouth.

Chapter 14:

a. Woody gives Judith some background info on Justin Kerr.

b. Uncle Cliff had a truly impressive collection of fishing tackle.

c. Edna Fiske gives Judith some information.

d. Dooley assisted with the investigation in Just Desserts and Holy Terrors. He's about 6 feet tall and has a crush on 15-year-old Brianna Stein, daughter of the neighbors at the end of their cul-de-sac.

e. Melissa Bargroom passes on a tidbit about Justin Kerr.

f. Mr. Plunkett addresses Judith as "Mrs. McMonigle" instead of "Mrs. Flynn".

g. When Dan died and was being taken out of their Thurlow Street rental house to the hearse, his body went through the rotting floor in the kitchen.

Chapter 15:

a. Judith has an unsettling dream about her mother.

b. Judith visits her optometrist, who is in the same building as the Doctors Feldman.

c. The cousins go to the Cascadia Hotel, where Inez Garcia-Green is staying.

d. The cousins meet the Prices' newborn.

Chapter 16:

a. Judith and Renie's Cousin Marty had an ex-girlfriend send him two ostriches by UPS (odd revenge).

b. Skjoval Tolvang shows the cousins how the toolshed renovation is going. We get a description. (Pity about the problem the Dooleys' willow tree caused.)

c. The cousins discuss the family cabin, where Dan wanted his ashes spread.

d. There's a bit about Judith's former career as a librarian.

It's pretty easy to understand why Judith considers the Pacettis and their entourage her worst guests so far. There are red herrings aplenty and some coincidences (but not too far-fetched). The Gertrude and Aunt Deb situation is solved before one manages to kill the other. It's a pretty good entry in the series.

DOG LOVERS: You'll have to be content with some name-dropping of Ignatz the poodle.

CAT LOVERS: Sweetums is his very not-sweet self. I enjoyed his role in the last chapter. ( )

Life is never dull at Judith McMonigal Flynn’s B&B, Hillside Manor. This time, opera star Mario Pacetti and his entourage is taking over the B&B. They are in town for Pacetti’s performance in “Traviata.” Pacetti comes with a pain-in-the-neck reputation, a list of favourite foods and an ego that doesn’t quit. The reason Judith took them on was the opera house is paying three times the standard rate for their stay. Who can refuse the money?

When Pacetti drops dead during his performance in “Traviata,” and it is determined it was poison and not a heart attack that was the cause of death, everyone becomes a suspect, and secrets start to emerge for many. Liaisons, people who aren’t who they pretend to be and more. Judith and Renie, her sister, decide to find the murderer on their own as the murderer is probably staying at the B&B and this latest disaster is not doing any good PR for the B&B.

Judith’s husband Joe, a homicide cop, and Renie’s husband Bill, a psychologist, are in New Orleans at a conference on sociopathic personalities. With both men gone, Judith decides to remodel their tool shed that had suffered fire damage from one of the neighbourhood kids. She plans to install her mother in the newly designed MIL apartment. As her mother and her husband never have gotten along, she feels this is a solution to taking care of her mother and keeping her marriage intact. Hopefully it will be done before Joe gets back. ( )

Judith McMonigle Flynn is not a happy hostess. the newly-wed has been coerced into booking obnoxious opera star Mario Pacetti and his entourage into The Hillside Manor, her b&B. To make matters worse, her new husband (and high school flame) Police Detective Mike Flynn has departed for for a week-long conference in New Orleans,
When the puffed-up tenor falls over and dies during his first aria, Judith is unhappily stuck with consoling his widow, agent and various hangers on. They are eating and drinking her out of house and home. When it is discovered that Mario was murdered, not the victim of a heart attack, Judith and her cousin Renie know they must solve the murder, because the perpetrator is still in Judith's house.
After many twists and a lot of opera trivia, they solve the mystery, save Judith's life and get to have the last word with her disapproving husband. ( )