This darkly hilarious tale of murder and mayhem set squarely under the bright lights of the show business world introduces Stella Pentangeli, "Lady Showbiz Detective," and Inspector Ng, a taciturn Chinese cop. The story explores the themes of winning, losing, and recovering fame and the relevance of traditional theater in the 21st century. The dialogue is snappy, the characters outrageous, and the story suspenseful. The cast of characters includes debauched stars, sleazy execs, brain-fried actors, and drunken playwrights.
Murder at the Fortnight, Steve J. Spears
MURDER AT THE FORTNIGHT is set in the testing arena of the "theatre" and the arts. Showbiz commentator, Stella Pentangelli is returning from a bit of a "rest" as it's known in the trade, after a stella career as a showbusiness commentator and heavyweight. Inspector Ng is an investigator in the police, renowned for his different methods and for not paying the slightest bit of attention to all the whispering about his slightly bizarre methods.
Steve J Spears is a renowned Australian playright, and in MURDER AT THE FORTNIGHT he's created a wonderfully eccentric, slightly stagey set of characters resolving the murder of a major TV executive and then an internationally renowned and universally loved, indigenous actor at "The Fortnight". The Fortnight is a yearly "event" for the theatre community, reading and workshopping plays, in a university theatre town, a long way from civilisation.
There's nothing even slightly realistic in the police system described in MURDER AT THE FORTNIGHT, even allowing for Ng's slightly eccentric methodology and this lack of accuracy creates a very stagey, very elaborately set murder mystery in which the lives of the investigator's are as much part of the story as the investigation itself.
Lovely, unusual and enjoyable as long as you're not looking for gritty reality.