Book of the Week: Death at the Dress Rehearsal

Yes I’m cheating because I finished this on Monday. No I’m not sorry. Not even remotely this time!

It’s 1970 and Edward Lowe and John Le Breton, two aging actors are on location filming a not very good BBC sitcom called Floggit and Leggit . But when Edward stumbles across a body he’s convinced the death is not the accident the local police think it is and even though they’re not really friends to start with (you could say they tolerate each other) he convinces John to help him investigate. Soon they’re crisscrossing the country in their gaps in filming and the body count starts to mount. Can they figure out who is behind the deaths before the killer strikes again?

Now if you’re anything like me, you’re reading that blurb and thinking hang on, that sounds like Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier solving crimes around the filming of Dad’s Army. And then about ten seconds later I had a sample in my kindle and about 30 seconds after that I’d read enough to decide to buy it. And that is definitely the vibe. It’s a pretty solidly plotted cozy crime novel with plenty of twists and an interesting and slightly fractious duo of aging actors at the centre of it where the dynamic is definitely a mix of Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson and the generally accepted personas of the two actors behind them. The sitcom is more Lovejoy meets open all hours or last of the summer wine but there’s actually not as much action from the set as you might expect. I really enjoyed it – and if I hadn’t been trying to finish Astor before I went away for another few days (and if there had been less action in the F1) I would have finished it yesterday. I haven’t read anything else from Stuart Douglas, but I’m already looking forward to the sequel next year.

I bought my copy on Kindle – it was £1.99 when I bought it last week, but it’s up at £5.99 at time of writing. And it’s also in Kobo (for the same price as Kindle) and available in paperback too, although the only one of the central London Waterstones that claims to have it is Piccadilly and the only Foyles is the main one at Charing Cross Road.

Happy Reading!