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Diva

Susan Fleet
Lulu Press (2011)
ISBN 9781257802807
Reviewed by Kam Aures for Rebecca’s Reads (07/11)

Susan Fleet’s “Diva” is set in post-Katrina New Orleans in 2006.  Belinda Scully, a flutist, and as the title accurately describes, a diva, is being stalked.  On October 12, 2006 her manager pulls her into New Orleans Police Detective Frank Renzi’s office claiming that someone tried to run Belinda down with a vehicle.  Belinda tries to brush it off but more and more things keep happening to her. 

She has some secrets in her past that she has not made known and is also an extremely superstitious person.  She avoids the number thirteen like the plague.  She will not travel on the 13th, will not stay in a hotel room that has the number 13 in it, etc.  Will she come to terms with the fact that someone is stalking her?

Besides the more upscale music world, Fleet also takes the reader into the trenches as we see the crime and squalor that exists in New Orleans post-Katrina.  Another character in the book, Chantelle, is a 15 year old, who is homeless.  She gets picked up after a convenience store robbery and we get a glimpse of the terrible, intimidating conditions that she is living in.  In “Diva,” these two distinct worlds become intertwined.

This is the first of Fleet’s novels that I have read.  Apparently this is the second book in a series with the main character being New Orleans Police Detective Frank Renzi.  Renzi is a very likeable, well-developed character and an excellent person to center a series on.  In fact, all of Fleet’s characters are well-developed and intriguing in their own right. 

Fleet’s “Diva” is a very engaging book and is full of action.  If you enjoy psychological suspense novels, or are interested in the music world, “Diva” would be a wonderful choice to add to your reading list.  I look forward to reading more Frank Renzi novels in the future.


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