Staged 4 Murder
Dollycas’s ThoughtsSun City West is launching a production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and because all the members of Phee’s mom’s book club love mysteries they all just have to be part of the play. Sophie “Phee” Kimball has other things on her mind, like the new private investigator joining the firm where she works. Someone from her past and she just doesn’t know how she can see him every day without telling him how she feels.
But of course, her mother has to interrupt her at work several times a day with all the happenings at the theater. When Phee receives a call saying a cast member was dead she rushes to the theater to find her mother and her friends uninjured but the star of the play dead up on the catwalk. Phee finds herself in the middle of another investigation along with the new P.I., Marshall Gregory because the Booked 4 Murder Book Club doesn’t think the police have a clue so they have hired the firm to solve the case. Curtain up, light the lights. there is a murder mystery to solve if Phee survives both her mother and the killer.
Thankfully Phee’s Aunt Ina is out of town, so she only needs to be at her mother’s beck and call. Harriet is a real force, says what she thinks, interrupts in the most inopportune moments, and demands her daughter do what she tells her to do, right now! If Harriet was my mother I would either be in jail or live far, far, away. Sophie has the patience of a saint and so does Marshall Gregory. Phee had warned him about her mother and her friends, who aren’t as demanding as Harriet but are pretty manipulative in their own right. Marshall doesn’t back off but takes them all with a grain of salt. He does have feelings for Phee, I just hope whatever relationship they try to have can survive one of the pushiest women on the planet.
After you get used to Harriet’s boldness we are treated to an exceptionable mystery. Twists, threats, “ghosts”, secrets, trapdoors, spotlights, and murder all collide to keep readers glued to the pages. The police really dropped the ball at the beginning of the investigation. It took some digging for the real suspects to come into focus. As all the clues start to fall into place and the mouse is almost trapped the suspense ramps up. I did think after learning all about the mechanisms around and under the stage that Phee would surprise the killer in a different way with to set up the ending. The approach used by the authors did bring the story to a satisfactory conclusion with some chilling moments too.
The Booked 4 Murder ladies do bring a lot of humor to the story. I do have hope for the budding romance between Marcus and Phee, but with Aunt Ina back in town, heaven only knows what the next book will bring.
A fast-paced entertaining read. I should be recovered from Harriet by the time the next book is released. 🙂 All three books in this series have been pleasures to read. I am looking forward to my next visit with Sophie “Phee” Kimball!
