ENCORE IN DEATH

In 2036, the poisoning of a beloved actor at a swanky party celebrating his actress wife has Lt. Eve Dallas and Det. Delia Peabody scouting around for those who might not have considered him quite so beloved.

Minutes after giving her champagne cocktail to Brant Fitzhugh to hold while she joins her co-star in an impromptu duet, Eliza Lane—who’s headlining a revival of Upstage, the play that launched her career 25 years ago when Leah Rose’s fatal overdose made her understudy an overnight sensation—is cradling her husband’s body in her lap. Was he the intended victim, or was she—or was the murderer someone like actress Vera Harrow, whom Brant had dropped 10 years ago to marry Eliza and who wouldn’t much have cared which of them she killed? Eve’s suspicions alight first on Ethan Crommell, a fan who became such a dedicated stalker of Eliza that he was confined to an institution from which he’s recently been paroled. He’s followed by Vera, then by Eliza's bestie, thrice divorced Sylvie Bowen, who has ample reason to be jealous of her old friend. But Eve isn’t satisfied that any of them fills the bill, and when she unearths a startling link between the long-deceased Leah Rose and one of the 200 party guests, she’s ready to forget all those other false leads. Fans of detective fiction set in the present day, however, will find Robb’s major plot twist so familiar that they’re more than likely to beat Eve to the solution this time.

An episodic, anticlimactic case notable mainly for the future Broadway glitz.