Death at the Dress Rehearsal

 Book 76 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from September 28 - October 21

Death at the Dress Rehearsal by Stuart Douglas

published 2024

Summary (via the book jacket)

In 1970, while on a location shoot in Shropshire for the downmarket BBC sitcom Floggit and Leggit, ageing actor Edward Lowe -a "short stocky northerner with a receding hairline and bad eyesight", who plays the pompous and officious lead, a role based on himself - stumbles across the body of a young woman, apparently the victim of a tragic drowning accident. But there's something about her death that rings the faintest of bells in his head and, convinced the woman has been murdered, he enlists the help of his laid-back, upper-class co-star John Le Breton, a man for whom raising a wry eyebrow is a bit too much of an effort, to investigate further.

Crossing the country and back again during gaps in filming, the two elderly thespians make use of their wildly contrasting personalities and skillsets to uncover both a series of murders in the modern day and links to another death during World War II. But, as the body count mounts and a pattern to the killings begins to emerge, can Edward and John put their differences aside to save the innocent victims of a serial killer and still be ready for when the cameras start rolling?

My Opinion

3 stars

This is the first book in the "Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries" series and it caught my interest while browsing at the library.

I liked the characters and want to see their friendship blossom which is why I'll probably give the second book a try but if the series continues for multiple books and the premises continue to be that the actors are in the wrong place at the wrong time (or is the right place at the right time?) to stumble upon murders, I'll probably tire of it.  An ordinary person being constantly surrounded by crime is one of my least favorite things about cozy mysteries but I also acknowledge there wouldn't be a story without it so I read them but also complain about it.  I'm a delight.

As far as the mystery they were solving, it moved at a good pace even though the final threads connecting everything felt tenuous and coincidental.