By Sharon K. Gilbert
For those who don’t know me well, the inclusion of musical scenes in Blood Lies may come as a surprise. Actually, I spent many years as a professional singer, and I even studied and performed opera at the University of Nebraska Lincoln for a couple of years (and before that at Indiana University). So, it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that my main female character (and her little cousin Adele) both love to sing. Using opera as a plot device also allows me to include theater scenes and use the lyrics of arias as a means for internal dialogue and even conflict.
In many ways, the inclusion of operatic elements allows me to pay homage to one of my favorite early 20th century novellas, The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (the link is to the Kindle Unlimited Free edition at Amazon).