A skeletal corpse that falls from the ceiling of the Grand theatre is identified as Virgil Smart. His widow, Stella, now runs the theatre with her new husband and a small troupe, including a pretty young actress and her fiancé – each of whom reports that Virgil had been found slumped over his desk, dead of heart failure. Stella insists her husband was buried at a proper funeral. But if this corpse is Virgil’s, then whose body did she bury? It seems that honour went to an out-of-work actor named Eddie. As if things weren’t complicated enough, Murdoch discovers a secret room off Virgil’s office – obviously designed for seduction. Could these murders be the result of a lover’s quarrel, a jealous husband, or a spurned lover? One thing is for certain: Each of these well-rehearsed actors knows what happened that night – and now Murdoch knows just how to trip them up.
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