In the third installment of Carola Dunn''s cozy mystery series, Daisy Dalrymple is up to her fashionable bob in temperamental artists—one of whom is a cunning killer.

With dashing Scotland Yard Inspector Alec Fletcher at her side, Daisy is enjoying a delightful performance of Verdi''s Requiem, featuring her neighbor Muriel Westlea''s celebrated sister, Bettina. But when all that emerges from the doomed diva''s vocal chords is a dying gasp, Daisy soon discovers that the notoriously difficult opera star had her share of adversaries, among them a smugly philandering tenor, a burly Russian bass, and even her own vocal coach husband, with whom she shared a hardly harmonious marriage. Did one of them fatally poison the acclaimed mezzo? Or was someone else determined to see that Daisy''s investigation ends on as bitter a note as Bettina''s fateful last performance.