DescriptionCharles Paris has landed a dual role in a lavish West End musical: onstage as a bit player, offstage as an undercover sleuth. The production's nervous backers fear that someone is trying to kill the play. The ultimate showstopper would be to eliminate the star. One of England's most popular comedians, the star is adored by the public, despised in the business. The playwright wants to strangle him. The leading lady longs to stab him in the back. The young Lothario looks at him with deadly rage. And, unless Charles turns the spotlight on the real behind-the-scenes saboteur before opening night, murder will take top billing.
DescriptionLeo's papa stood in the doorway, gazing down at him. "Leo, you make gold from pebbles, " and the way he said it, Leo could tell that this was a good thing. He may have been given a bit part in the school play, but Leo dreams he is the biggest star on Broadway. Sure, his big, noisy family makes him feel like a sardine squashed in a tin, but in his fantasy he gets all the attention he wants. Yes, his papa seems sad and distracted, but Leo imagines him as a boy, tap-dancing and singing with delight. That's why they call Leo "fog boy". He's always dreaming, always replaying things in his brain. He fantasizes about who he is in order to discover who he will become. As an actor in the school play, he is poised and ready for the curtain to open. But in the play that is his life, Leo is eager to discover what part will be his.
DescriptionLight the lights, we've got nothing to hit but the heights! There's no business like show business! At the venerable Vulcan Theater, tensions are running high on opening night. There are the usual problems, certainly: muffed lines, a late curtain, egos butting heads. But the show must go on! And it does, then the entire production is upstaged when the leading man is found backstage, dead. Was it suicide or murder, Scotland Yard's dapper inspector Roderick Alleyn takes center stage in a puzzle that might be a macabre encore to a long-ago murder in the same backstage room. Ngaio Marsh's 15th mystery (and the third Marsh title from The Audio Partners) takes the listener into something far worse than backstage squabbles!
DescriptionGrandes Dames of film and stage Trixie and Evangeline must dust off their amateur sleuthing skills in another delightfully witty mystery from Marian Babson. Trixie and Evangeline have always accepted that it might occasionally be necessary to suffer for their art, but they draw the line at dying for it. Fearlessly, they face incompetence, irritation, and boredom as they scour the pub theatres and eccentric venues of the London fringe in their search for a new play to star in. How could they imagine that their innocent quest would lead them into danger? They never suspect that while they are stalking a likely playwright, a merciless killer is stalking them.
