Murder takes the stage

Agatha Christie's housekeeper, Phyllida Bright, gets a taste of the theatrical spotlight in this jaunty historical cozy from Cambridge (the fourth in a series, after Murder by Invitation). With one of Agatha's plays in the early stages of production on the West End, she and her husband, Max, lease a house in London to facilitate rehearsal visits. The move means Phyllida--whose feelings about London are "exceedingly complicated"--has her hands full organizing the housemaids, dealing with the Christies' arrogant new French chef (who looks unnervingly like Hercule Poirot), and bickering with their handsome chauffeur. Shortly after the household arrives in London, an actor dies onstage, presumably of natural causes. When two more West End performers turn up dead, Agatha starts to suspect a serial killer. She taps Phyllida to investigate discreetly, plunging the housekeeper into a world of backstabbing thespians. Like its predecessors, this frothy fair-play mystery is a cut above the standard, with just enough wit and well-drawn characters to make an impression. Series fans will be delighted. Agent: Maura Kye-Casella, Don Congdon Assoc. (Nov.)

Agatha Christie and Max Mallowan's trial move from Devon to test the waters of London is marked by a series of theatrical murders they ask their housekeeper to solve. Summoned to the Adelphi Theater by her distraught friend and employer, Phyllida Bright joins Agatha and Max in mourning the death of Archibald Allston, whom producing couple Hugh and Melissa Satterwait had been eyeing as the possible lead forWasp's Nest, a play based on one of Agatha's stories. Examining the scene and the body a lot more closely than the police would have approved of, had anyone thought to call them, Phyllida concludes that Archie died of natural causes. The same can't be said for Trent Orkney, the Benvolio clubbed to death at the Belmont Theater the next day. Drama critic Abernathy Vane's alliterative headline--"Benvolio Bashed on Balcony at the Belmont! And Alston Asleep in Armchair at the Adelphi"--playfully suggests that the two deaths are connected, a suspicion that's less playfully confirmed when Claudia Carmichael, the star ofPeter Pan, is catapulted from her rope harness to her death at the Clapham. Even as she does her best to protect the most likely next target--Daphne Dayberry, who plays Lucy in the Dunsary Theater's production ofDracula--Phyllida, encouraged to her surprise by Scotland Yard inspector George Wellbourne, works tirelessly to figure out the motive behind the rigorous but random-seeming pattern. The result is her most ingeniously plotted case, though also her least original. Poor Agatha Christie is given nothing to do here but collect material to rehash in one of her own most celebrated novels. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.