A Brutal Crime
Colleen Cambridge’s Phyllida Bright Mysteries are another series I’m trying to catch up on this year. As a result, I sat down with Murder Takes the Stage, the fourth in the series. It was a lot of fun.
This book finds us in a new setting as Phyllida, housekeeper for famed mystery author Agatha Christie, is in London. Agatha along with her second husband, Max, is there to oversee a potential adaptation of one of her Poirot stories for the stage. Phyllida is less than enthused about being back in London. She’s hoping to stay in the house that the couple has rented and oversee the household that has come along to avoid any potential unpleasantness.
But fate has other ideas. The potential producers for Agatha’s play are hit with a death on one of their current productions when Archibald Allston is found dead in an armchair the week before the play is supposed to open. Phyllida doesn’t see any signs of foul play, but she begins to second guess her observations when the man playing Benvolio in a production of Romeo and Juliette is bludgeoned to death on the balcony of a different theater the next day. Can Phyllida discover what is happening before another death occurs?
This is the part of the review that I once again confess my lack of knowledge about Agatha Christie books. I know, I know. I really need to fix that. Each book in the series takes some cues from a famous Agatha Christie novel. Obviously, I can’t tell how similar the two books are, but I did want to acknowledge the comparison.
In earlier books, we’ve gotten hints about Phyllida’s backstory, but nothing remotely concrete. I was happy to see we finally got some answers here. While there might be more, I’m happy with what we got, at least for now. And I’m curious if Phyllida’s friendship with Agatha (that lead to her working for the author) might play into something from Agatha’s past. I guess I’ll have to keep reading to find out.
Even though we were in London, enough of the familiar staff came along that it still felt like an entry in the series. I enjoyed how some of those relationships grew here, and I’m very curious to see where things go soon.
As to the mystery itself, I felt like it substituted events for actual deduction at times, meaning the story wasn’t really moving forward even thought there were events that had me entertained. It’s a fine line, and I may be the only one who cares about it. But overall, I thought the story was solid with a good slew of new characters to keep us entertained. And the ending, while a bit overly dramatic, fit in with the series and answered our questions.
I’m glad I have the next book in the series already since I do want to see where the characters go from here. Fans will get caught up in Murder Takes the Stage.
Here are the rest of the Phyllida Bright Mysteries.
I haven't read this series but somewhat enjoyed book 1 in her series that features Julia Child. I prefer mysteries that don't feature real-life characters, however. I don't mind a cameo or two but it seems very intrusive, especially to characters that still have living relatives.
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