A Deadly Night at the Theatre - Katy Watson
A grand London theatre is lit up at night, with three flowers (presumably dahlias) strewn along the ground in the foreground. The title, author’s name etc. overlay it.
A Deadly Night At The Theatre is a mystery novel by Katy Watson, the latest in her Three Dahlias series, and is set to be published by Constable on the 10th July 2025.
4.5 stars
The series follows the ‘Three Dahlias’ who solve crimes together, comprised of the three actresses to play Dahlia Lively (a detective from a 1930s book series) on screen. Rosalind Young, the first actor to play Dahlia, is a ‘National Treasure’ in the vein of Penelope Wilton or Celia Imrie. Caro Hooper, PI and star of a 2000s TV adaptation, comes across initially as a Lesley Sharp-type figure (except pricklier and trying harder to come across as posh) who is now a best-selling author documenting the trio's investigations. And finally there's Posy Starling, star of a recent reboot film, whose career as a child star came to an abrupt end in her teens.
In this fifth installment in the series, we open on press night for Posy's new play Lights Out, set during the 1977 New York Blackout. Rosalind has been away in Wales for six months, and in this time things have become tense between Caro and Posy. It seems to be centred on Caro’s new costar and friend Luke Burrows, the two getting close in rehearsals for play Finding Freddie, but his unclear history with Posy causes tension which Rosalind is eager to squash as soon as possible.
But when Luke is found dead in Posy’s dressing room, and she quite literally has blood on her hands, Rosalind is determined to clear her fellow Dahlia's name, sure she didn't do it, even if all evidence and gossip points to her.
Had Luke really changed? If not Posy, who could've killed him? Will the rift cause the Dahlias to come apart at the seams?
I had never read any of the other books in this series (or any others by Watson), and didn't realise in the first place that it was a sequel. However, I don't think you need to have read the previous books to get a lot of enjoyment out of this one (I certainly enjoyed it a lot), it might be better to read the others first, though. I can safely say that I'll be tracking down copies of the rest of the series to read in future.
This one is a fun, immensely satisfying West End murder mystery, and I love the characters, especially the three protagonists. I love how different they are, and how real they feel. It's a really wonderful premise to me as someone who has always been a sponge for actor trivia to have three actresses linked by a role teaming up to solve murders.
The mystery itself also really hooked me, and I wouldn't say it was obvious how it would end/resolve, but in hindsight makes a lot of sense. I'm really looking forward to reading the previous books in the series and find out more about the other mysteries mentioned here. There's even a further installment in the series ahoy, I would guess from the ending, and I can't wait for this either.
