Randi Fuglehaug

Diva Diaries

Toned​ø​d

Martha Tverrberg, a 66-year-old world-renowned saxophonist and controversial feminist is performing this year​’​s commission piece at Vossa Jazz, the annual international jazz festival at easter. In the audience sits Agnes Tveit, who is writing a biography about the jazz diva. Agnes is a fan of Vossa Jazz ​— if it just weren​’​t for the music. Her thoughts keep wandering off, to how she had broken the engagement with her ex-fianc​é after admitting to a one night stand with a journalist colleague. As if this weren​´​t enough, her old love interest, the one who got away, Alexander Kosanovic, is the new director of Vossa Jazz. Agnes knows that she has never wanted Alexander more.​​

After jamming with her musicians for two hours non-stop, the diva takes a break, only to grab the microphone and give a furious speech about how the whole jazz community is a disgrace because of its ageism and discrimination against women.​​Then, she picks up her instrument, plays one heart-wrenching wail ​– and falls to her death on stage.​​

The police conclude that Martha died from a poisonous powder applied to the mouth piece of her second saxophone and start investigating the death as murder. They soon discover a connection between this case and the death of the former festival director. Was he also murdered? When Agnes Tveit finds Tverrberg​’​s diaries, she discovers several suspects . Soon she gets tangled up in a murder mystery that might put herself in great danger.​​

Photo: Jon Hunnålvatn Tøn

Randi Fuglehaug is an experienced journalist and editor. She was a US correspondent for Dagbladet in New York and has contributed to several of Norway​´​s most important newspapers and magazines, as well as working in television and hosting the podcast F​ø​dselspodden. She has authored both literary children​’​s books and narrative non-fiction. Alt vel med mor og barn ​— historier om f​ø​dsel (Samlaget 2018) is her most recent non-fiction title, and the same year she published her latest children​’​s book Skalla (Samlaget). She grew up in Voss in Western Norway, but lives in Oslo with her husband and two children.​​