The seventh shot A detective story

About the book

Preparations for a Broadway production bring actors, managers, and the young detective Jim Barrison into close contact. Barrison's initial connection is practical: the play needs convincing police procedure. But a warning directed at the prominent actor Alan Mortimer gives him a more serious reason to attend the opening. Rivalries and difficult personal relationships surround the company, and precautions backstage cannot eliminate the danger implicit in a performance built around action and gunfire. The investigation must distinguish what an audience was meant to see from what actually happened. Published under the name Harry Coverdale, this mystery draws suspense from the theater's divided spaces, rehearsed movements, and the uneasy overlap between a fictional crime and a real one.

• Theatrical illusion
• Threat and performance
• Evidence behind appearances

Why read it

Enter a backstage mystery where the machinery of a play complicates the reconstruction of a crime.

English detective novel published as Harry Coverdale, 1924