Local Theater Rocked by Murder
When I realized I’d accidentally bought There’s No Murder Like Show Murder twice (once as a Kindle deal and once in hardcover at Malice Domestic last month), I decided that must be a sign that I should read the book. I was right to follow that sign.
This debut introduces us to Tasha Weaver who is the head of the costume shop at the Eastbrook Playhouse in a small Connecticut town. Sadly, the theater has been struggling in recent years, so they have put all their hope in a production of Annie Get Your Gun starring two Broadway legends.
Unfortunately, one of them, Kurt Mozer, has an ego to go with his resume, and he is making life difficult on the rest of the cast and the crew. Still, his decision to quit a week before the production opens puts the theater in a difficult position. Then he is murdered on stage when the theater is mostly empty.
Tasha can’t help but poke around a little, especially since she’s connected to the gossip of the theater. But the more she learns, the more questions she has. Can she figure out what happened?
Being a fan of theater, I enjoyed this look behind the scenes at a regional theater with a production in trouble. This is a bigger production than anything I was ever involved in the few times I took part in a play, and I enjoyed the glimpses into what life can be like backstage.
Of course, that world is made more complicated here by a murder. It’s obvious early on who the victim is going to be, and the book doesn’t waste any time getting to the murder. From there, we have quite a few suspicious things going on, and I was really kept guessing as I raced to the end. I did figure things out a little before Tasha, but not long before she did, and I was still a little unclear on a couple of the details until she helped fill them in. I will say, a couple of times I felt she made some pretty big leaps in logic (that turned out to be correct), but they were minor issues overall.
The cast of characters were great. Tasha was a fantastic lead we could really sympathize with, and I appreciated the growth we saw in her here. The supporting players are fun, and I appreciated the character moment one of them got especially. There’s room for some of the others to be developed more, but they worked for what we got here. And the suspects were strong and kept me guessing.
There’s No Murder Like Show Murder is a strong debut that cozy mystery lovers will devour. I hope we get another mystery from M. S. Greene soon. I’ll be first in line for the encore.
I'm so glad to see you enjoyed this one! I have it on my TBR.
ReplyDelete