loribonesscaswell

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Veronica Walsh has been asked to come out of retirement to play the medium in a local community theater production. It sounds like fun so she accepts only to find the director has been murdered soon after rehearsals begin. She and Sophie, the stage manager, find the body and soon are cast in their own investigation. Will they make it to the final act or will they and the play close early?

Working in community theater the cast and crew get close. This group has been fortunate to find a family so interested in their productions that they have turned an old barn and a nearby building into a theater and office for the group. Of course, it helps that a member of the family is the director. That is until she ends up dead.

Ms. Quigley has created quite a cast of characters for this story. The Townsend family owns the Gold and Country Club. A converted barn on the property is used for not only theatre productions, but weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs and other large parties. It sounds like a beautiful building. Gigi Swanson’s in-laws own the place and when she is murdered, her husband and his parents become murder suspects and so does Veronica and other members of the cast. These characters continue to evolve throughout the story as Veronica digs into them and their backgrounds as she tries to find the killer.

The mystery was so well plotted, it left me guessing right up to the end. I did like that Veronica reported back to the police anything she found out. This doesn’t happen often in this genre. Clues led them both on a very surprising path but Veronica found herself right in the line of fire.

The flow of the story had a slow build as suspects were eliminated but the tension took hold as the real killer was revealed. Someone I had ruled out earlier. Nicely played, Ms. Quigley.

The author has penned an excellent mystery with just a touch of romance. Her relationship with Mark is moving at a nice pace.

For me, a “perfect escape”.

This book can be read on its own but it’s more fun if you get to know Veronica from the beginning.