FALL-WINTER 2025-26 PICK
“The Understudy unveils the hidden world of opera, one scandal at a time …”
The Understudy, A Novel by
Morgan Richter
Publisher Description: An opera singer uncovers the dark secrets of her cruel and alluring understudy when a murder disrupts her disciplined world. After years of rigorous instruction and ensemble work, Kit finally gets her big break when she’s hired to play the lead role in a new opera based on the 1960s cult classic film Barbarella. Entrusted with playing the beautiful and seductive titular role, Kit is on her way to the top of the highly competitive world of New York City opera. But then she walks into rehearsal and meets her understudy. Stunning, suggestive, and bursting with the unbridled confidence of a novice, Yolanda is physically everything Barbarella is meant to be. At first, Kit isn’t threatened by the neophyte, until Yolanda reveals that she wants the role—and will do anything to get it.
How to present this to library customers: Entice your patrons with The Understudy, a gripping novel that pulls back the curtain on the cutthroat world of opera, where a lead singer's rise to fame is threatened by a ruthless understudy. Create a display featuring this book alongside other theatrical suspense novels in your collection to thrill readers who love high-stakes drama and dark secrets.
Audience Key:
NOVICE:
A patron who does not know about the arts but is looking for new interests. These items are for public collections that call for you to introduce the arts to patrons and ignite their interests. They often know much more about popular culture than what’s happening in the arts.
EXPLORER:
These items are for customers who have some knowledge of the arts and want to learn more. Oftentimes these patrons stream music from your music streaming service, take out music and art biographies and they may attend music and art programming at your library.
AFICIONADO:
Ordering for aficionados requires knowledge about their habits when consuming the arts. These patrons are aware of the arts through museums, classical music, jazz and more. Oftentimes, these patrons attend music and art programming at your library, are professionals in the arts world with thorough knowledge of visual and/or performing arts.