Stage Fright: A Cambridge Mystery [Hardcover]

Christine Poulson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2005

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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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From Booklist

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (April 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312340745
• ISBN-13: 978-0312340742
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,191,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic English mystery in the Christie tradition, April 27, 2005

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Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stage Fright: A Cambridge Mystery (Hardcover)

While on maternity leave from Cambridge University and with her husband away handling a legal matter in Los Angeles, Professor Cassandra James meets her neighbor actress Melissa Meadows and her spouse Keith Kingleigh. Melissa and Cassandra share an affinity since both recently gave birth prematurely. Kevin is going to direct a production starring Melissa. He asks Cassandra to adapt the Victorian drama East Lynn, which she agrees to do.

As opening night beckons, Cassandra notices the cast seems extra nervous. Later an anxious Melissa calls Cassandra believing that someone is stalking her. Cassandra tries to calm her down. The next day Melissa fails to appear for a rehearsal so Cassandra goes to visit her. Melissa is gone without a word, but abandoned her six month old baby that she had shown so much love. With her own fussy infant at her side, Cassandra wonders what happened to her new friend while unable to contact Stephen, dealing with the abrupt arrival of her first husband, and Detective Sergeant Vickers suspecting the professor killed the actress.

STAGE FRIGHT, the second Professor James tale (see MURDER IS ACADEMIC), is a fabulous amateur sleuth mystery that builds up the suspense slowly so that the reader like the heroine suspects everyone's motives. Either foul play occurred or Melissa had played the role of a loving mother, but Cassandra cannot find a motive for either scenario while the evidence points towards her so that even the audience will believe she harmed or murdered the actress. This is a fantastic English mystery in the Christie tradition.

Harriet Klausner