Murder at the Theatre Royale
The perfect murder mystery for Christmas 2022
by Ada Moncrieff
published by: Random House UK, Vintage on 13 October, 2022
ISBN 9781529115314
It's 22 December 1935. Agony aunt Daphne King works for a newspaper but wants to use her journalism skills on the crime beat. Her boss isn't keen on the idea and wants her to stay where she is--she's good for the bottom line. She solved the case of a kidnapped contessa and ever since circulation has gone through the roof. However, he needs someone to fill in for a guy who has become ill, so he sends her to the premiere of a play--A Christmas Carol--being staged by a formerly well known playwright. So it is that Daphne is there at the dress rehearsal when the leading man, in his role as Ebenezer Scrooge, drops dead. Inspector Marklow soon arrives and decides it was probably heart trouble. Daphne thinks otherwise and it doesn't take her long to ruin Marklow's pre-Christmas plans. Daphne and her new friends are soon on the hunt for the killer.
I was interested in this book because of the connection to Christmas and A Christmas Carol. I do love a Christmas cozy! As it happens, that was pretty secondary to the plot and was almost an afterthought in the story, although winter weather did play a small part. I enjoyed the book anyway, but it wasn't what I expected.
I was a bit confused for a while, because it was clear that Daphne knew Marklow pretty well and that there had been other cases before this one. Some reference was made to these cases, which made me think this was one of a series, but I was unable to find any other books with this character.
This was a fun read. I liked Daphne and her new friend Veronica quite a lot. I enjoyed the way Daphne grew in confidence as she went along and was determined to get her boss to change her role at the paper. She is also fond of wordplay as I am, so I found myself chuckling at some of her comments. The mystery was a good one and the ending was not predictable. The author tended to move into the future quite a lot, writing things like, 'For years, Daphne would remember this moment as a turning point...' Sometimes she would use this device to let the reader know about the future selves of some of the characters. I don't know if this will be a series. It seems like it would lend itself well to that and it would be interesting to see how Daphne evolves and grows over time. If you like cozy mysteries, this is a nice way to spend a few hours.
It may be published as A Stage for Death in the US--I have seen it reviewed under that title.
I received a free advanced reader's copy of the e-book in exchange for a fair review. I thank NetGalley and the publisher.
4 comments:
Will look for this one..l
I saw it reviewed under the title at the end of the post, so that could be the US title. I'll be curious to see if this will be a series. It seems like her only other book was also a Christmas cozy but with different characters.
Great review! I usually don't read/review Christmas books but this year I've already added a few to my list. I was going to add this but I can't find either title on Amazon. There was a book titled Murder at the Theatre Royale but it was written by Albert Clack and was a different synopsis.
I think the publication date is in early October, at least here. I will have to check and add that info!
I enjoy a good autumn/Christmas cozy. I don't usually like to read them until summer is over or at least on its way out! 🙂
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