This book really speaks to me, because I think it asks questions that are so close to the author's own experience. The novel is a mystery involving Vardis Wolf, an opera singer whose career, repertoire and voice is closely modeled on that of Maria Callas. As a fan of Callas and opera the glimpses of that world in the book itself holds some fascination--but there's another ghost in between the lines of this book--Ayn Rand.

Kay Nolte Smith was once part of the inner circle hovering about Ayn Rand. This was a woman whose values and artistry she deeply admired, and if you know much about Rand's beliefs, you can see her continuing influence in the writing and themes and worldview of the book. But Rand was also someone it was destructive to get close to, someone who espoused liberty and individualism who nevertheless carried on something close to a cult from which ranks Smith found herself expelled from. It's impossible for me not to see the parallels in this novel, in which Smith examines artistry and genius and admiration and the contradictions and complexities and dynamics in such a figure and her followers.

It's also a solid mystery in a classic whodunit sense. Well-written, in a less baroque style that of her later books. Years later I still remember a powerful image in the book, of a baby thrown in the garbage with eggshells in her hair. And it does something in the end I quite admire in terms of being honest about consequences to her characters. ( )