{"id":4085,"date":"2025-01-09T19:44:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T19:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=4085"},"modified":"2025-01-31T01:17:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T01:17:51","slug":"the-understudy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=4085","title":{"rendered":"The Understudy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s loathing at first sight when trained opera singer Kit (stage name Katerina) Margolis meets her understudy, the sexually alluring Yolanda Archambeau, on the first day of rehearsals for Barbarella, a new opera based on the 1968 film. Kit, struggling to prove she is right for the titular role, her first leading part, is taken aback when her director introduces Yolanda to the cast, something not done until later in the rehearsal process. \u201cI felt a flash of irritation, uncharitable yet valid. She didn\u2019t need to be there. She shouldn\u2019t be there.\u201d Kit\u2019s unease rises when Yolanda yawns during Kit\u2019s big aria and later confesses her operatic ambitions, despite her lack of training. Regarding underhanded scheming, Eve Harrington (of the film All About Eve) has nothing on the ruthless Yolanda, whose weapons against Kit include poisoned tea and dead rats. But before her plotting can escalate to a deadlier level, Yolanda is fatally stabbed in her apartment. Kit, who briefly falls under suspicion because of a violent incident in her past, turns sleuth to uncover her late rival\u2019s dark secrets and identify her killer. <strong>Offering an entertaining look at the backstage world of New York City opera, Richter\u2019s second novel (after <em>The Divide<\/em>) skillfully mixes the tropes of a psychological thriller with the conventions of an amateur sleuth mystery.<\/strong> Especially compelling is Kit\u2019s growing self-confidence as a singer and a woman as she pursues the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s loathing at first sight when trained opera singer Kit (stage name Katerina) Margolis meets her understudy, the sexually alluring Yolanda Archambeau, on the first day of rehearsals for Barbarella,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[163,55,50,51,53,56],"class_list":["post-4085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-book-of-the-week","tag-mystery-detective","tag-suspense","tag-thrillers","tag-women","tag-women-sleuths"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Understudy-400x400.jpeg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Understudy.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"Willy Williams","author_link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?author=7"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}