What a treat to read the 22nd novel in Simon Brett’s great series featuring bohemian healer Jude and her strait-laced neighbor Carole Seddon! With many other mysteries, the series gets tired long before the 22nd book, but Brett makes readers long to be reunited with Jude and Carole.

Drake Purslow, a onetime castmate of Jude’s from her previous life as an actor, is appearing at a nearby theater, starring in a play based on a 40-year-old hit TV sitcom. Jude attends the play’s closing, only to discover Purslow dead in his dressing room nearly immediately after the curtain falls. In the ensuing chaos, a bloody footprint next to Purslow’s body is obliterated. Does that mean Purslow was murdered? Jude and Carole fully intend to find out, and readers are lucky to come along for the ride. Highly recommended, as usual.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Severn House in exchange for an honest review.

Carole Seddon, a very respectable retired woman living in the English seaside village of Fethering, doesn’t care for the theatre. But her neighbour Jude counts the job of actress among her many and varied past careers. So when Jude attends the closing night of a new play based on a classic TV sitcom, Carole is interested – but only because she suspects the leading man, Drake Purslow, is one of her scandalous friend’s ex-lovers.

The night turns out to be more dramatic than either Carole or Jude could have ever predicted. After the performance, Jude makes her way to Drake’s dressing room, only to find him dead – in what, to Jude’s experienced sleuthing eye, seem very suspicious circumstances.

Did one of the play’s cast – made up almost entirely of the original sitcom’s actors – have a long-held grudge against the show’s star? Or are more recent hatreds to blame? Jude is determined to find out – and Carole, who despite protestations is almost pathologically nosy, is right there to investigate alongside her.

loved it. WIll recommend to others.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this book!!

What a great book! I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down. The author has such a good writing style. This was a first for me by this author but will not be my last! I enjoyed the characters. They had good chemistry.