The Empire Theatre Murders

Music, Magic . . . Murder—1920's Golden Age mysteries don't come any twistier or funnier

October 1921. Kit and Mary Aston are asked by their friend, police artist Rufus Watts, to investigate threatening letters that have been sent to the performers in his family's seaside variety theatre.

They arrive to find out that temperamental magician, Javier Gonzalo, has lost his head, quite literally, mid act.

With the help of old associates, Chief Inspector Jellicoe, the newly promoted, Detective Inspector Wellbeloved, and Rufus Watts, Kit and Mary soon find themselves in the middle of a race against time before the murderer strikes again in a case where revenge is the motive and everyone is putting on an act.

After the Indiana Jones-like adventure in The Tangier Tajine, Kit and Mary Aston return to a more traditional murder mystery set in the world of post-war variety theatre just before the arrival of moving pictures and radio sounded the death knell to this wonderful realm of entertainment.