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Diva's Fool—
Winner of 2008
Lovey Award in
Best Paranormal
Category.
R E V I E W S
Armchair Detective Review In a time where what is unseen or unknown is disregarded as myth, Silva Foti brings light to the otherworldly experience of the Tarot. In The Diva’s Fool, Foti presents the popular cards as tools for guidance and understanding through Alexandria Vilkas. Alexandria, a Chicago reporter, writes about the supernatural from the perspective of someone who knows – she is being trained to enter the Order of the Tarot. What’s more, she also works as a detective, bringing intrigue and madness to the forefront of the story. |
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THE DIVA'S FOOL REVIEWS
"We enter a gentler world in The Diva's Fool by Silvia Foti (Echelon Press, $12.99). During her long career, temperamental soprano Carmen Dellamorte has collected enough fans and enemies to fill the Chicago Lyric Opera House where she dies onstage in mid-performance. Journalist Alexandria Vilkas, who writes for a paranormal magazine, decides to investigate. Readers of this traditional mystery will find as much enjoyment in Alexandria's attempts to solve the crime through Tarot readings as they will in the solution itself. Alexandria is likeable enough to be a star in her own right, but humble enough to opt out of diva-hood, thus becoming a welcome addition to the growing pantheon of psychic detectives. And as cold as some of the preceding books might be, The Diva's Fool will warm you right back up."
--Mystery Scene Magazine
Betty Webb
"With a whiff of orange spices, the flipping of some Tarot cards, and a sip of herbal tea, reporter Alexandria Vilkas is off and running again, investigating a murder mystery that makes for one hell of a wild night at the opera. Silvia Foti has created a real winner with The Diva’s Fool. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but above all, you’ll love it."
--Michael A. Black, author of Melody of Vengeance and A Final Judgment
"Tarot cards, murder, and a reporter with a box full of incriminating evidence leads the reader to a magical world where the paranormal proves more powerful than traditional crime solving methods. Sylvia Foti has created a fun-filled story with plenty of action and vibrant characters. Diva's Fool is witty, suspenseful and an all around terrific read!"
--Scarlett Dean, author of Invisible Shield
"The Diva’s Fool casts a powerful spell impossible to break until the last page is read. Magical, yet grounded in reality, the book takes the reader behind the scenes of Chicago’s Lyric Opera, into the mysterious realm of the occult and the gritty world of gunrunning. New Age reporter Alexandria Vilkas is a fearless, enchanting and believable detective of the paranormal. I want more of her."
--Gail Lukasik, author of Destroying Angels
Chicago Life -- Advertising Supplement to The New York Times -- Winter 2008
The Diva's Fool (Order of the Tarot Chronicles Book Zero) by Silvia Foti (Echelon Press, $12.99). Local author Silvia Foti is back with the second Alexandria Vilkas mystery novel based in Chicago. This time the journalist is hired for a ghostwriting job by an opera diva at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, only hours before her untimely death on stage as Lady Macbeth. The fun begins when her editor assigns her to do a story about the murder for Gypsy Magazine, a forum for the paranormal and the occult. The Diva's Fool zooms in on the ancient practice of tarot. While Alexandria works as a reporter for Gypsy Magazine, she also studies in preparation for her induction into the Order of the Tarot, under the tutelage of Christopher Warlick, a psychic on Archer Avenue. Between battling her personal demons to transcend her attraction to a married man and solving the diva's murder, Alexandria's life is littered with colorful characters from the world of opera, showcasing the fragile egos and quirky foibles that can be connected to life on stage. The development of the central character remains strong even amid the psychic and artistic forces swirling around her. This is a tight murder mystery offering a look into some interesting subcultures on the Chicago landscape.--Marilyn Soltis
The Chattanooga Press, Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Off the Bookshelf by Mason Canyon.
The Diva's Fool
Order of the Tarot Chronicles
Book Zero
By Silvia Foti
www.silviafoti.com
ISBN: 978-1-59080-506-0
Echelon Press
9735 Country Meadows Lane I-D
Laurel, MD 20723
www.echelonpress.com
Paperback 288 pages
$12.99
If the supernatural, the paranormal and Tarot cards isn't your cup of tea, you've never looked at them through the eyes of Alexandria Vilkas, a Chicago reporter.
Alex writes for the Gypsy Magazine, a bimonthly in Chicago that covers supernatural phenomenon.
Alex is constantly trying to prove herself to her fellow reporters since she got the job because her mother--the mayor's righthandman (woman)--got her boyfriend--the magazine's publisher--to hire Alex.
Meanwhile, Alex is also studying with her spiritual advisor Christopher Warlick (also known as The Wizard) to enter into the Order of the Tarot
Alex is to interview opera diva Carmen Delamorte on her love of Tarot cards. The interview is conducted at the Chicago Lyric Opera House just hours before the diva gives her final performance prior to retirement. She is playing Lady Macbeth.
Barely into the interview and Carmen turns the tables on Alex asking her to thost write a book on her famous father.
The diva insists. Alex agrees and before the interview can contiue Carmen has a large box of material on her father messengered to Alex's home.
Before the interview concludes the diva's understudy who says the name of play three times curses the play.
With the interview over, Alex joins the audience to watch the pefromance. Near the end of the performance, the crowd is shocked to see the diva walk on stage and die.
Alex reflects on a two-prong test The Wizard had given her--avoid the advances of a married man and solve a murder.
Finding herself in the middle of the murder investigation, Alex must pass many hurdles to find the killer and enter into the Order of the Tarot.
She is spied on, her apartment is ransacked, her cat is kidnapped and held for ransom, she feels she's being forced out of the story by a co-reporter, and she has to fight her feelings for the married man, who just happens to also be involved in the murder. And, all this occurs in 10 days.
You'll laugh, you'll cry and you might even develop an interest or at least a curiosity in Tarot cards by the time Alex comes face to face with the killer.
The Diva's Fool is author Silvia Foti's second mystery novel and the launch of a mystery/paranormal series based on the Major Arcana of the Tarot cards.
Can't wait to see what's the next adventure Alex uncovers as she studies her Tarot cards and continues her destiny to investigate murders of the paranormal.
SKULLDUGGERY REVIEWS
Today's Books--"Exceptional!!!!"
"New Age philosophies and murder mix when the first Mexican mayor of Chicago dies of poisoning at a New Year's Eve party and a supernatural crystal skull goes missing. Police accuse occult phenomena reporter Alexandria Vilkas--who was dancing with the mayor at the time--of both murder and theft. Her editor, however, tells her to find the murderer--and write up her investigation. Chief suspects include uppity aldermen, a treacherous billionaire, and several cuckolded husbands. A highly appealing, up-front heroine and a novel look at Chicago politics make this an attractive first mystery."--Library Journal, February 1, 2002
"A crystal skull that may have supernatural powers, Chicago politicians, a dead mayor, and an astrologist combine to make Skullduggery a fun brew. A humorous romp with a good bit of mayhem included." --Barbara D'Amato, author of Authorized Personnel Only, and winner of the first annual Mary Higgins Clark Award
"South Sider's first novel is all Chicago. The book is an unusual kind of suspense read, featuring a crystal skull that may have supernatural powers, Chicago-style politicians, a loverlorn astrologist, new age occultists and plenty of humor."--Betty Mohr, Daily Southtown
"Foti's debut novel is a fast-paced fictional tale of mystery that just about any Chicagoan can enjoy. It's a serious suspense with a good dose of humor added. I recommend Skullduggery."--Joe Kulys, Southwest News Herald
"The heroine is tough, independent and prone to bad relationships. Skullduggery is a fun read and an impressive first novel. It's the first in a series in a city that could use another local character."--Marilyn Soltis, Chicago Life
"Skullduggery by Silvia Foti brings a new novelist of real talent onto the scene. Foti combines a serious whodunit with a comic opera treatment of Chicago politics. Besides delivering many a laugh, Foti creates gripping suspense." --Robert Gover, author of One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding
"You don't believe anybody could make Chicago politics weirder than life? Silvia Foti comes close. From the first lines, in which the Mexican mayor of Chicago flattens Gypsy Magazine feature writer Alexandria Vilkas by dying on top of her, to the undying interference of Alex's mother in her life, it doesn't get much weirder than this. Oh, and did I mention that Crystal Skull that seems to be dictating even more, if that's possible, than Alex's mom? Vivid storytelling." --Sara Hoskinson Frommer, author of The Vanishing Violinist
"Chicago politics and New Age hype make for an irresistible combination in Silvia Foti's fast-paced novel of mayoral murder and metaphysical mayhem." --Eric Maisel, author of Write Mind and The Creativity Book
"In Skullduggery, Silvia Foti gives an unusual and inventive tale full of slippery Chicago politicians; a female hero who's courageous, vulnerable, and oh-so-human; and a smoothly-paced plot to the end. What's not to like?" --David J. Walker, author of No Show of Remorse, a Malachy Foley Mystery
"Alexandria Vilkas navigates the everyday madness known as Chicago politics with a sharp pen and the uncanny resilience of an emerging feminist. When she's done with 'the boys,' nothing's where it once was and all's not only well, it's better! This is truly a contemporary Chicago adventure! Brilliant on every level!" --Jim Kozicki, Chairman, Daley College Department of English and Speech and Playwright, "Black Beauty," "Songs with Polish Words in Them"