Part of Death on Demand, book 3
First published 1988
Annie Laurance runs a mystery bookstore and loves classic theater, but the local summer stock production of Arsenic and Old Lace turns deadly. Cast members backstab each other while someone sabotages props and equipment. The star, Shane Petree, is an aging Hollywood actor who mangles his lines onstage and seduces wives and teenage daughters around town. When someone finally silences Petree permanently, a prosecutor tries to frame Max, Annie's fiancé, for the murder. Annie must clear Max's name or their wedding plans collapse. She channels her favorite literary detectives, drawing inspiration from Miss Marple and Poirot, while her bookstore cat Agatha provides companionship. Annie investigates the theatrical world of costumes and stage lights, but the killer plays by different rules than the fictional murderers in her beloved mystery novels.
Genres: fiction, mystery, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-detective, clearing-name
Setting: Arsenic and Old Lace
226 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Bantam