Fi and Jade are back! And this time, it’s theatrical.

A small town theatre with big ideas, a faded star, ambitious amateurs. Nothing can go wrong – can it?

Death On Opening Night is out today and if you read it, you’ll find out why I mentioned in my last post that Liz and I had to work out how to spell a bark by recording ourselves woofing. (We might have to include more animals in future as it was good fun if slightly bonkers!)

The scene is Hazeby-On-Wyvern, the small English riverside town where Fi runs a book barge and Jade runs a crystals shop. The town is putting on an arts festival with its big draw – an ambitious run of Macbeth (or should I say ‘The Scottish Play’?) at the theatre where the director has somehow managed to hire a once famous star to play a lead role.

Dabbling in murder in the previous book hasn’t dented their friendship at all, but they don’t expect it to happen again. Turns out they’re going to be disappointed, just as Fi’s slumbering love life has woken up too.

We loved writing this book, and clarifying the spelling of a woof was just the cherry on the cake!

Here’s the blurb:

Recapturing the past can be murder.

When Tallulah Levantine, neglected sixties movie star, moves to Hazeby-on-Wyvern, she bankrolls the local am-dram production of Macbeth in exchange for the role of Lady Macbeth. This annoys both the usual leading lady and the leading man, Andy, who’s dating Fi. However, her presence boosts the town, with a festival, events and activities planned. Better still, a hit TV series directed by famous Jon Angel is filming nearby. Could the town and its budding actors be set for stardom?

Then Tallulah receives threats and rehearsals are blighted with accidents. Finally, a body is found in her dressing room, mistaken for her. Who is trying to kill her, and why? The prime suspects compete to frame each other, but with insufficient evidence, the show must go on.

As the town hits the headlines, suspicion falls on someone Fi believes is innocent. When another crime takes place and the evidence points to the same suspect, she realises that time is running out. Can she and Jade discover the murderer lurking in the wings?

Death on Opening Night is the second book in the Booker and Fitch cozy mystery series, set in and around the English market town of Hazeby-on-Wyvern.