Title: Lights Camera Murder at the Castle
Author: Avery Kent
Date: 2025
Quote: "[A] whole two weeks of filming here! With a complete takeover of the castle..."
The fictional Castle Frobisher has been rented to the cast and crew of a TV series. Producer Don, or Donald, or Donahue, Sullivan, or Sully, is a certifiable bunghole. Everyone else has reasons to hate him so the only questions are when someone will write him permanently out of the show and how Kitty McCray and the other castle residents will prove whodunit.
If you think a good mystery novel needs a murder, but a good detective ought to be able to solve one murder without waiting for the murderer to make it a series, then this and the other planned and actual "Castle mysteries" ought to be precisely your cup of tea.
My review copy contained a few things that may have been cleared up in the final published copy. (The same character is described as "tall" in one scene and "small" in another. I used to know a gifted actress, and that was how people described her, so this gave me a vivid impression of the character. Still, when the victim has been stabbed in the back it might be relevant to the plot to know whether a character is 5'2" and good at towering over people or 5'10" and good at looking up to them, or maybe 5'6" and capable of both.)
It's an entertaining story, in any case. I think my favorite scene is the one where the characters agree that, though shocked by the murder, they're all glad that Don's gone. Then there's the one where Lord Frobisher, who as an aristocrat can afford to flout any and all stereotypes, starts reminiscing about the traditional cross-dressing comedies his and Kitty's schools used to stage and decided to cross-dress again for old times' sake. He's not trying to cheer up the TV people; he's ignoring them and behaving like himself in his own home. And there's the cat shown on the cover, and also a dog, who gambol through the scenes and occasionally call attention to a clue...
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