Blog Tour: The Norfolk Theatre Murders – Judi Daykin

One witness who can’t be trusted. Seven actors who’ll never stray from the script.
And a costumed killer, waiting in the wings . . .

Behind the front door of Mr and Mrs Morgan’s elegant Norwich townhouse, something is terribly wrong. Detective Sara Hirst pushes it open to find a scene of utter devastation. Furniture upended. Shattered china and torn papers strewn across the floor. And, amid it all, James
Morgan himself. A frail old dementia sufferer, crying out for his wife.
Where’s Carole?

Amateur actress Carole Morgan was out late last night, running lines with her castmates at the Rosegarden Theatre. James waited up for her for hours. But now he knows, she’s never coming
home.
A stranger came calling in the night to tell James as much. A masked stranger, draped in a monk’s habit.

Now, James urges Sara to hunt for the person behind the mask, certain that the trail will lead straight to his missing wife.
Sara takes his ramblings with a pinch of salt. It’s just his distressed mind playing tricks on him.
But when a body is found, hidden beneath the boards of the Rosegarden stage, she’s forced to think again.
Now Sara’s in a race against time to track the ruthless killer. With a cloaked figure watching her every move from the shadows . . .

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Yorkshire born, Judi has lived, worked and made theatre in Norfolk for the last forty years. She completed her MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 2019, and her debut novel was shortlisted for the Little, Brown UEA writers prize. That novel became Under Violent Skies, which was long-listed for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger in 2021.
Judi was a working actor with a portfolio career spanning twenty years of theatre, film and television; directing; workshops; audio narration and medical roleplay. These days she writes full time from her study in a North Norfolk village. She also enjoys crafting, art history, watching horror films and going on cruises, none of which she has much spare time for!

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My thoughts: This was a very dark and sinister case, a tale of revenge and madness as people connected to an amateur theatre are murdered by someone dressed like the theatre’s supposed ghost of a monk.

The police are struggling to locate their suspect, and then a young social worker who has been helping a homeless military veteran, is kidnapped. I actually think she’s the hero of this book, kind, believes in doing the right thing and wants to help her clients like Vince to have a better life.

The police are following every lead and are pretty sure it has to be someone linked to the theatre in some way, they just don’t know how. Unfortunately the killer isn’t done and two detectives are at risk. Sara Hirst, one of the team, finally corners the killer, at great risk.

Both the theatre’s recent past and the much older past of Norwich play a part in what happens and how the police solve this one, which was clever and gripping.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.