Stage Fright: A Cambridge Mystery - Hardcover

Poulson, Christine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312340745 ISBN 13: 9780312340742

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2005

Synopsis

All is not well at Cambridge University's St. Ethelreda's College. The head of the English Department is dead, and Professor Cassandra James is appointed the task of running the department. Faced with the choice of whipping her underperforming colleagues into shape or losing the much-needed funding for the program, Cassandra resigns herself to the challenge. However, when she stumbles upon the former head's private papers and realizes that the death was no accident, Cassandra is forced to use her academic expertise of solving obscure literary puzzles for a very different purpose: tracking down a killer.

About this title

About the Author

Christine Poulson was born and brought up in North Yorkshire, England. She is now a research fellow at the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies at Sheffield University and chair of the William Morris Society. She has written widely on 19th-century art and literature, and her most recent work of non-fiction was a book on Arthurian legend in British art from 1840 to 1920. She lives with her family in a water mill in Derbyshire, England.

From the Back Cover

British Praise for Murder is Academic:

"Cambridge academic Christine Poulson's first crime novel is a triumph of suspense and intrigue. A labyrinthine plot is unravelled as intriguingly as a literary puzzle."
- Bodies in the Bookshop Magazine

"An intriguing read...Poulson certainly keeps the reader guessing...There is a lot to enjoy in this romp through the Cambridge commons. This is Poulson's first novel, and she creates a strong sense of place with a narrative style that is both energetic and engaging."
- Sherlock Magazine

"A fascinating mystery..The sense of place was very strong...This is [Poulson's] debut book, and I just hope that the next one is not too long coming."
- Mystery Women

Reviews

Heavy with allusions to Thomas Wolfe, Lewis Carroll, Nietzsche, Kafka and other literary giants, British author Poulson's absorbing second Cambridge mystery (after 2004's Murder Is Academic) concerns Professor Cassandra James's efforts to cope with single motherhood while making a trouble-ridden dramatic debut at the Everyman Theatre. She has rewritten Mrs. Henry Wood's 1860s novel East Lynne as a play, and during rehearsals must deal with a ghostly apparition in the gallery, followed by the abrupt disappearance of her close friend and leading lady, Melissa Meadow. Cass comments that "life does seem to be mirroring art in a rather disturbing way" when an anonymous letter quoting a Byron love poem offers the only clue to Melissa's whereabouts. Much of the story concerns such maternal challenges as breast-feeding, squalling babies in "nappies" and postpartum depression, yet somehow Cass finds time to break into her missing friend's empty house and eventually track down both her own and Melissa's abusive ex-spouses and other lovers. Skillful blendings of reality with Tarot card prophesies and dream visions lead to a stunning resolution.
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In this second addition to the series featuring Cambridge professor Cassandra James Murder Is Academic, 2004), Cass is stuck at home with baby Grace while her husband is away on business. The disappearance of the leading lady in a local community theater production draws Cass into a real-life melodrama involving a jealous husband, a cloaked figure in the loges, an illicit affair, a kidnapping, and a surprise visit from her ex-husband. Self-centered actors, a bumbling detective, and a duo of screaming babies conspire to drive Cass nuts as she searches for clues as to why the leading lady would abandon her acting career, her marriage, and her newborn child. Or why someone would want to get rid of her. Encompassing attributes of both an English cozy and a classic "woman-and-child-in-danger" thriller, this quick little read is sure to please fans of both subgenres. Jennifer Baker
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312340745
• ISBN 13: 9780312340742
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240