{"id":1727,"date":"2025-02-13T11:37:57","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T19:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?page_id=1727"},"modified":"2026-05-02T09:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:13:07","slug":"the-understudy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/the-understudy\/","title":{"rendered":"THE UNDERSTUDY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook format\u00a0wherever books are sold<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

An opera singer uncovers the dark secrets of her cruel and alluring understudy when a murder disrupts her disciplined world.<\/strong>

After years of rigorous instruction and ensemble work, Kit finally gets her big break when she\u2019s hired to play the lead role in a new opera based on the 1960s cult classic film Barbarella<\/em>. 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 in to 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\u2019t threatened by the neophyte, until Yolanda reveals that she wants the role\u2014and will do anything to get it.

As Yolanda\u2019s schemes become increasingly more reckless, she draws an unwitting Kit into her orbit. But when a brutal murder destabilizes the company and threatens her role, Kit discovers that Yolanda\u2019s glamorous veneer conceals something much more sinister. Hunting down the betrayed friends and discarded lovers from Yolanda\u2019s past and unearthing secrets she\u2019s worked hard to bury, Kit realizes just how far Yolanda is willing to go to get what she wants, and the number of enemies she made in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA bouquet of bravas to Morgan Richter for The Understudy<\/em>, her look at backstage intrigue\u2014and murder\u2014at a small New York opera company about to debut its version of the movie Barbarella. . . . Any lover of behind-the-scenes backstabbing should enjoy this. . . .\u201d \u2014Air Mail<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRichter follows up her debut The Divide (2024) with another gripping noir, this one set in the cutthroat world of Manhattan opera. . . . Richter peels back the curtains on the world of professional opera in a second outing that\u2019s tense, taut, and compulsively readable.\u201d \u2014Booklist

<\/strong><\/em>\u201cA razor-edged thriller set amid the rarefied world of opera performers. . . . Richter delivers soapy backstage dynamics and gasp-worthy twists. It\u2019s a satisfying nail-biter.\u201d \u2014Publishers Weekly

<\/em><\/strong>\u201d Richter (The Divide<\/em>) delivers plenty of show-stopping moments. . . . From dress rehearsals and deaths through final flowers, feathers, and fanaticism, Richter\u2019s novel stays mostly at fever pitch in a way that will intrigue even readers who don\u2019t give a fig about opera\u2019s theatrics.\u201d \u2014Library Journal
<\/em><\/strong>
\u201cRichter\u2019s new slow-burn thriller centers on opera singer who has finally secured her place in the upper echelons of the New York scene and the understudy who proves herself to be more than merely a young rival, but something far more dangerous. Richter\u2019s novel is tautly drawn but still full of wonderful detail from the life cycle of a big operatic production. . . . Readers will find themselves fully immersed in this thoughtful page turner.\u201d \u2014Crime Reads (The Best Psychological Thrillers of 2025)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook format\u00a0wherever books are sold. An opera singer uncovers the dark secrets of her cruel and alluring understudy when a murder disrupts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1727","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1727"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1836,"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1727\/revisions\/1836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}