This image is the cover for the book Stage Fright, Cambridge Mysteries

Stage Fright, Cambridge Mysteries

During her maternity leave, Cambridge academic Cassandra James gets involved in a production of East Lynne. There is as much drama behind the scenes as there is on stage. The director is desperate to revive his flagging career. The maker of a fly-on-the-wall documentary is equally desperate to launch his.

The crisis is reached when the leading lady disappears before the first night. Cassandra thinks it is more than stage fright, for Melissa has left six-month-old Agnes behind. Cassandra’s struggles to uncover the truth lead her deeper and deeper in a maze of illusion and deceit. Someone close at hand is not what they seem. Cassandra and her baby are in grave danger . . .

"Poulson deftly keeps up the tension while manipulating the roles characters play on and off the stage: an academic cozy with attitude." - Kirkus Reviews

Christine Poulson

Christine Poulson was born and brought up in North Yorkshire, England. She is now a research fellow at the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies at Sheffield University and chair of the William Morris Society. She has written widely on 19th-century art and literature, and her most recent work of non-fiction was a book on Arthurian legend in British art from 1840 to 1920. She lives with her family in a water mill in Derbyshire, England.

Thomas Dunne Books