Christopher Prentiss’s former bully / old school friend Marmaduke rushes to Lord Edgington’s estate to find his friend and the lord, once a chief detective at Scotland Yard. Marmaduke, an aspiring actor, has been rehearsing his small role a play in London’s West End. A bizarre accident has happened – an actor has been killed during rehearsal by a stage prop -- an old suit of armor with an ax.
The retired detective and his grandson accompany Marmaduke to London and work with the police. It appears to have been an accident, but Lord Edgington suspects otherwise, and Christopher finds the evidence. As they investigate, they discover a tangled web of motives, past histories, jealousies, and strong emotions. The difficulty is separating reality from what the actors in a play normally do – project strong emotions. Slowly they realize that someone in the cast or crew seems to be following the plot of the play itself as a guide – and it’s a murder mystery.
Benedict Brown
A Killer in the Wings is the 11th Lord Edgington mystery by British author Benedict Brown, and it’s something of a breakthrough for two reasons. First, it happens almost entirely with central London (no country estates home in this one). Second, Lord Edgington is deliberately leading and misleading Christopher into solving the crime itself. And the young man will do exactly that (not without a few false starts and blind alleys).
In addition to the Lord Edgington stories, Brown has written seven Izzy Palmer mystery novels and three novellas. A native of south London, he lives with his family in Spain. The Lord Edgington mysteries are likely aimed at both the general reader as well as the young adult audience. And they’re well-researched stories, full of information about the mid-1920s.
A Killer in the Wings includes the author’s usual humor and detailed descriptions of scenes such at the Hotel Savoy on the Strand, Leicester Square, a West End theatre, the area of London known as Little Venice, and more. It’s an entertaining story, and it’s fun to cheer on Christopher as he officially solves two murders on his own.
Related:
Murder at the Spring Ball by Benedict Brown.
A Body at a Boarding School by Benedict Brown.
The Mystery of Mistletoe Hall by Benedict Brown.
Death on a Summer’s Day by Benedict Brown.
The Tangled Treasure Trail by Benedict Brown.
The Curious Case of the Templeton-Swifts by Benedict Brown.
The Crimes of Clearwell Castle by Benedict Brown.
The Snows of Weston Moor by Benedict Brown.
What the Vicar Saw by Benedict Brown.
Blood on the Banisters by Benedict Brown.
Some Monday Readings
Today is Israel’s 9/11 – Bari Weiss at The Free Press.
Things Worth Remembering: A Time of War – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.
The (American) Revolution in the Hudson Highlands – Bert Dunkerly at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.
An unpublished interview with Gabriel Garcia Marquez – El Pais.
Classical Education’s Aristocracy of Anyone – Micah Meadowcraft at AEI National Affairs.
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