Mystery at the Belmont Library

An opera conductor is murdered during a performance. A member of the orchestra is suspected in the killing. And a young woman, also in the orchestra, teams up with an opera-loving cop to investigate the assassination.

What happens next?

Author Erica Miner will visit the on Wednesday night to reveal a few more details -- but not the ending -- of the murder at the opera, the full story of which can be found in her new novel Murder in the Pit.

Miner’s first mystery novel tells the story of a young Metropolitan Opera violinist who, during her debut performance, watches as her mentor, a famous opera conductor, is assassinated while at the podium. When the violinist’s closest colleague in the orchestra is accused of the murder, the violinist teams with an opera-loving NYPD cop to investigate the murder.

“Mystery is a really difficult structure,” Miner said in a phone interview from her Southern California home on Monday. “Keeping the reader guessing is an enormous challenge. But ultimately fun to do.”     

Miner spent 21 years with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. She draws from her knowledge of the famed opera house to create a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of opera musicians.

Miner said her intimate knowledge of the Metropolitan Opera House has enabled her to go into such a level of detail that it almost makes the opera house itself a character in the story.

“I recreated that world in a detailed way,” she said.

From September through May, orchestra musicians at the Metropolitan Opera often play seven days a week, either doing performances or practicing.

“It is the most difficult schedule of any opera orchestra in the world,” Miner said.

Musicians, she said, often see their fellow musicians more than their own families. And when you’re around people as much as the Metropolitan Opera musicians are around each other, conflict is inevitable.

It is this conflict that gives several characters in Murder in the Pit the motive to kill the conductor.

A native of Detroit, Mich., Miner said she grew up in a house with an appreciation for music. Her father was her first violin teacher.

He was a promising violin player in his youth, but an industrial accident claimed the fingers on his right hand, leaving him unable to play the instrument.

Miner began playing the violin when she was 9 years old. At 17, she moved to Boston to do her undergraduate studies at Boston University, and completed her graduate studies at the New England Conservatory. At both schools she studied under Joseph Silverstein, then-Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony.

After Miner moved to New York, she played violin for the Metropolitan Opera for 21 years until an injury sustained from a car accident caused her to ultimately retire from the world of music.

Miner, who first started writing as a 7-year-old after being selected for a creative writing program at school in Detroit, said she returned to writing as a creative outlet.

“I still wanted to tell stories,” Miner said, who often took writing classes while playing at the Metropolitan Opera.

While Murder in the Pit takes place in the world of music, she said that more than anything it's a good mystery story that can be enjoyed by all readers.

Following the discussion and reading from Murder in the Pit, Miner will discuss Puccini’s opera La Fanciulla del West, which celebrated its centennial last year.

Miner is the author of two additional novels, Travels with My Lovers and Fourever Friends.

The event begins at 7 p.m., and includes a wine and cheese reception before the reading. Sponsored by M is for Mystery, the event is free of charge.