Overture to Murder

The curtain comes down on murder in OVERTURE TO MURDER, the third novel of the Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series. Julia heads to the San Francisco Opera, this time with her significant other, former NYPD detective Larry Somers, and their five-year-old daughter Rebecca. Julia is under inordinate amounts of pressure as she replaces the ailing concertmaster, Ben, who has suffered serious injuries in a suspicious hit-and-run accident, which Julia suspects might not have been accidental. Then, one prominent company member becomes the victim of a grisly murder, and Julia cannot resist becoming involved in the investigation. As in her previous sleuthing at the Metropolitan Opera and Santa Fe Opera, Julia once again discovers that fiery artistic temperaments and danger lurking in the dark hallways and back stairways of an opera house provide a chilling backdrop for murder. This time, however, it’s not only her own life that is in peril.

They were crossing the street now. He could see them, so involved in their opera talk they weren’t paying attention.
Good.
Everyone knew the corner of Franklin and McAllister, the nearest main crossing to the stage door of San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, was one of the busiest in the entire Civic Center district. At twilight when people were leaving work, once the gilded California light began to wane, it was hard to see where one was going, or to perceive what and who might be in the immediate vicinity.
Performers from the Opera could not avoid crossing that intersection multiple times, day and night. Accidents, pedestrian and otherwise, did occur there. In 2020, a car crashed into a side entrance of the War Memorial Veterans Building, sending the driver to the hospital. Not common, but...
Common enough.
With the driver’s seat window open, he could hear fragments of their conversation. How he despised that voice. The voice of an operatic tenor who was so arrogant, so full of himself, that he strode about the stage as if he owned it. That he looked down on anyone who wasn’t an opera star like himself.
Me especially.
Andres the tenor spoke as he sang: as if telling the world that he, Andres, was the gods’ gift to opera. The singer strutted around owning, claiming, the San Francisco Opera stage—and every other opera stage in the world—for himself. Especially when it came to the massive works of the legendary nineteenth century operatic giant, Richard Wagner.
That swine Andres doesn’t deserve to be a star. Maestro Merola, our sainted founder, never would have put up with such egregious affectation.
But Maestro Merola had been taken from the company much too soon.
The Maestro was a saint, who didn’t deserve to die before his time.
He wiped away a tear. Then, remembering the afternoon’s rehearsal, he clenched his teeth. The repulsive behavior Andres exhibited that day proved he had not changed one whit since his previous engagement with the company years ago: arguing with the stage director, with the conductor. As if he existed in some lofty echelon miles above everyone else, in some kind of Valhalla—the mythical warrior’s heaven where the Norse gods live—of his own making.
That bastard. The world will be a better place without him.
He gave a cursory, respectful glance toward the newly renamed block of Grove Street, now called MTT Way in homage to Michael Tilson Thomas, the esteemed longtime maestro of the opera’s neighbor, The San Francisco Symphony.
He remembered being impressed with the speech the mayor gave at the dedication ceremony. But at the moment he was too harried to give it further thought, as the traffic signal changed to yellow.
He could see Andres and Ben were only halfway across the intersection.
Perfect.
Their light turned red, and his turned green. It was time. Bearing down on the accelerator he hugged the right lane, trying to aim for Andres without hitting Ben. He had no gripe with Ben, but if he became collateral damage, well...
Peccato.
It would be a shame. But sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good: getting rid of Andres once and for all.
The impact was swift and hard. He felt the thud of metal striking skin and muscle and bone.
He didn’t look back or sideways but raced through the intersection, weaving through cars, precipitously turning left at Turk Street to get out of the sight line of onlookers and other vehicles, then right at Octavia, which he knew was less congested than Gough.
Bristling with tension, he wiped one clammy palm, then the other, on his jacket and glanced around. No one seemed to be following him, and traffic ahead was light, as he had hoped. He could slow down and act normal.
He was home free.
Would the “accident” be featured on KTVU Evening News? In the San Francisco Chronicle headlines, tomorrow morning? He relished the thought that when he returned to the opera house the next day, voices would be buzzing with theories about who could have wanted to harm Andres Aaberg, the great Wagnerian tenor.
Who indeed?
But most importantly: the job was done.

Violinist turned author ERICA MINER now has a multi-faceted career as an award-winning author, screenwriter, journalist and lecturer. A native of Detroit, she studied violin with Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Joseph Silverstein at Boston University where she graduated cum laude; the New England Conservatory of Music; and the Tanglewood Music Center, summer home of the Boston Symphony, where she performed with such celebrated conductors as Leonard Bernstein and Erich Leinsdorf. Erica went on to perform with the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Company for 21 years, where she worked closely with renowned maestro James Levine.

When injuries from a car accident spelled the end of her musical career, Erica drew upon her lifelong love of writing for inspiration and studied screenwriting in New York and Los Angeles with script gurus Linda Seger and Ken Rotcop. Erica’s screenplays have won awards in a number of recognized competitions such as WinFemme, Santa Fe and the Writer’s Digest.

Inspired by journals she wrote during her travel adventures abroad, Erica penned the novel and screenplay of Travels With My Lovers, winner of the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. She also has written the feature screenplay and TV Series Bible for FourEver Friends, the first in her journal-based novel series chronicling four teenage girls' coming of age in Detroit in the volatile 1960s. Subsequent novel in the series are set in Boston and New York. In addition, Erica has written the screenplay of her mystery novel Murder In The Pit, now renamed Aria for Murder, released in Oct., 2022 by Level Best books, which takes place at the Met Opera. The sequel, Prelude to Murder, set at Santa Fe Opera, releases in Sept., 2023. The next sequel, which takes place at San Francisco Opera, will release in Oct., 2024.

Erica's lectures, seminars and workshops on writing and on opera have received kudos in venues worldwide, including: pre-concert lectures for the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall; the Wagner Societies of New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Northern California, North Carolina and Sydney, Australia; the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Washington; for the Creative Retirement Institute at Edmonds College near Seattle; and on the High Seas, where Erica was named a top-rated speaker for both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise Lines. Her wide-ranging topics range from "The Art of Self Re-Invention" to "Journaling for Writers: Mining the Gold of Your Own Experiences”, "Wagner and Bernstein: Parallels and Contrasts", "Opera Meets Hollywood"; Shakespeare and the Opera Composers Who Loved Him; and numerous others.

Now a well recognized reviewer for Seattle Opera and San Diego Opera, as well as San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony and Pacific Northwest Ballet among many others, Erica is a regular contributor of articles, reviews and interviews to:
- BroadwayWorld BroadwayWorld Articles
- Bachtrack Bachtrack Articles
- LAOpus LAOpus Articles
- OperaPulse.com OperaPulse.com Articles

Erica's writings also have appeared in Leitmotive, the magazine of the Wagner Society of Northern California, Italian American Magazine, San Diego Jewish Journal, Del Mar Lifestyle, Opera+ St. Petersburg Music & Art Magazine, Vision Magazine, WORD San Diego, Istanbul Our City, and numerous E-zines.

For Immediate Release Oct. 22, 2024
Contact: Erica Miner (eminer5472@gmail.com)
OVERTURE TO MURDER, by Erica Miner
“The curtain again comes down on murder,” says Miner
(Edmonds, WA) Level Best Books announces the release of Overture to Murder, the third in the series of “Julia Kogan Opera Mystery” novels set in the high-stakes world of opera by author and former Metropolitan Opera violinist Erica Miner. With her background rubbing shoulders with opera superstars at the Met, chronicled in the first in her series, Aria for Murder, Miner continues against the backdrop of the second most prestigious opera company in the US: The San Francisco Opera.
"The history of San Francisco Opera is one of the most fascinating of all opera companies. From the Gold Rush to the United Nations Charter to the current reverence for this establishment," says Miner. This, coupled with the mysterious atmosphere of this elegant, old world opera house, makes for the perfect environment for mischief and mayhem."
Young violinist Julia faces the greatest challenge of her life, not only in her work but in her personal life. With havoc onstage and off, Julia must use every fiber of her musical and intellectual talents to keep herself and her loved ones out of the path of danger.
According to Clifford “Kip” Cranna, Dramaturg Emeritus of the San Francisco Opera, “Erica Miner takes her readers deep into the larger-than-life opera milieu she loves and knows so well to spin a suspenseful yarn. Prepare yourself to be drawn inexorably into her engrossing account of deadly deeds behind the big gold curtain in the City by the Bay.”
Miner states, “Overture to Murder appeals to the universal fascination with an art form that reflects a depth of emotion that is relatable to mystery and opera aficionados alike.”
Published Oct. 22, 2024, by Level Best Books
Paperback: 294 pages ISBNs: ISBNs: 978-1-68512-781-7 (pb) 978-1-68512-782-4 (eb)
https://www.amazon.com/Overture-Murder-Julia-Kogan-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0DJDQC6X4/