I thought it might be fun to incorporate some big-name literary sleuths into my latest amateur-detective novel, Upstaged by Murder, which features a cast of community theater actors performing a whodunit on opening night. Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Father Brown each come under suspicion when the leading lady is murdered onstage. In other words, it is "Curtains for Cassie," as pronounced by one Rodney Snyder, aka Holmes.
Some of the actors have more difficulty than others in shedding their characters, but behind their disguises are real people: a librarian, insurance salesman, florist, publisher, and deli worker, all of whom might have a motive for actual murder, along with the rest of the cast and crew. And it is the role of my Scottish barrister and part-time detective, Rex Graves, who has been attending Peril at Pinegrove Hall in the front row with his new wife, to pull aside the curtains and peer into their all lives.
In this ninth installment of the Rex Graves Mystery Series, inspiration came through watching my neighbor's daughter star in local plays. I studied drama as an elective at university, too, and, like any writer of amateur detection, have read all the Golden Age mystery classics. I took a hiatus from writing cozy mystery to pursue another genre for which I have a passion, that of psychological suspense, and, coming back to Rex Graves, constructed Upstaged by Murder to be read as both a standalone work as well as a continuation of the series.
There are two murders to solve in this latest title: the fictional one in the play, which Miss Marple & co. have been invited to Pinegrove Hall to solve in the traditional manor house mystery tradition; and the "real" one central to the novel, where the killer could be anyone onstage at the end of Act One, or else an unsuspected stranger lurking in the wings...
***
Rex Graves and his new wife, Helen, attend the opening night of a play in which five famous literary sleuths of a bygone era are invited to Pinegrove Hall to solve the mystery of a missing heirloom. When the heroine meets with a sinister end, the audience applauds, unaware the real drama has only just begun.
Rex, a Scottish barrister and private detective, is called upon to help discover who among the cast and crew staged the death of the beautiful young actress. But this challenging mystery has many complications waiting in the wings, and Rex must use all his skills to unmask the true culprit.
Praise for Upstaged by Murder:
"Challinor, who often modernizes and repurposes golden-age mystery ploys, this time takes the further step of recruiting the stars of those classic novels to help solve the case."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Fans—and there are many—will be shouting, 'Bravo!'"
—Booklist
C.S. Challinor was raised and educated in Scotland and England (University of Kent, Canterbury: Joint Hons Latin & French). She also holds a diploma in Russian from the Pushkin Institute in Moscow. She now lives in Southwest Florida. Christmas Is Murder, the first in the Rex Graves Mystery series, reached #1 on the Kindle Bestseller List. The fifth in the series, Murder of the Bride, was a Mystery Guild Book Club pick (hardcover) and a Top Five Books of 2011 Selection by Crime Fiction Lover. Challinor is a member of the Authors Guild. Her author website may be found at www.rexgraves.com.
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