"Fans―and there are many―will be shouting, "Bravo!" ~Booklist A FLAWLESS MURDER IS PERFORMED ON STAGE . . . BUT IT'S NO ACT Rex Graves and his new wife, Helen, attend the opening night of a play in which five famous literary sleuths of a bygone era are invited to Pinegrove Hall to solve the mystery of a missing heirloom. When the heroine meets with a sinister end, the audience applauds, unaware the real drama has only just begun. Rex, a Scottish barrister and private detective, is called upon to help discover who among the cast and crew staged the death of the beautiful young actress. But this challenging mystery has many complications waiting in the wings, and Rex must use all his skills to unmask the true culprit. Rex Graves Mystery titles available in LARGE PRINT: Christmas Is Murder Murder on St. Martin Murder on the Moor Murder of the Bride Murder at the Dolphin Inn Murder at Midnight Murder Comes Calling Judgment of Murder Upstaged by Murder Prelude to Murder Say Murder with Flowers Say Goodbye to Archie "Fans ― and there are many ― will be shouting, 'Bravo!'" ~ Booklist "Challinor, who often modernizes and repurposes golden-age mystery ploys, this time takes the further step of recruiting the stars of those classic novels to help solve the case." ~ Kirkus Reviews "Satisfying... Smooth prose will keep cozy fans turning the pages." ~ Publishers Weekly A Play Within a Novel I thought it might be fun to incorporate some big-name literary sleuths into my latest amateur-detective novel, Upstaged by Murder , which features a cast of community theater actors performing a whodunit on opening night. Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Father Brown each come under suspicion when the leading lady is murdered onstage. In other words, it is "Curtains for Cassie," as pronounced by one Rodney Snyder, aka Holmes. Some of the actors have more difficulty than others in shedding their characters but behind their disguises are real people: a librarian, insurance salesman, florist, publisher, and deli worker, all of whom might have a motive for actual murder, along with the rest of the cast and crew. And it the role of my Scottish barrister and part-time detective, Rex Graves, who has been attending Peril at Pinegrove Hall in the front row with his new wife, to pull aside the curtains and peer into all their lives. In this Rex Graves #9, inspiration came through watching my neighbor's daughter star in local plays. I studied drama as an elective at university, too, and, like any writer of amateur detection, have read all the Golden Age mystery classics. I took a hiatus from writing cozy mystery to pursue another genre for which I have a passion, that of psychological suspense, and, coming back to Rex Graves, constructed Upstaged by Murder to be read as both a standalone work as well as a continuation of the series. There are two murders to solve in this latest title: the fictional one in the play, which Miss Marple & co. have been invited to Pinegrove Hall to solve in the manor house mystery tradition; and the "real" one central to the novel, where the killer could be anyone onstage at the end of Act One, or else an unsuspected stranger lurking in the wings... C.S. Challinor was raised and educated in Scotland (St. George's Schoolfor Girls, Edinburgh) and England (Lewes Priory, Sussex; University ofKent, Canterbury: Joint Hons Latin & French). She also holds adiploma in Russian from the Pushkin Institute in Moscow, and a minordegree in psychology. She now lives in Southwest Florida. Challinor is a member of the Authors Guild and writes the critically acclaimed RexGraves cozy mystery series published by Midnight Ink, featuring RexGraves, a Scottish barrister and amateur sleuth. Visit the author atrexgraves.com. TITLES IN THE REX GRAVES MYSTERY SERIES: Christmas Is Murder Murder in the Raw (not yet available in Large Print) Phi Beta Murder (" " " " " ") Murder on the Moor (" " " " " ") Murder of the Bride* Murder at the Dolphin Inn Murder at Midnight Murder Comes Calling Judgment of Murder Upstaged by Murder Prelude to Murder* Say Murder With Flowers* Say Goodbye to Archie* Thank you for reading! *Published by Perfect Pages Literary Management, Inc.