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A Scandal in Seven Acts

Book 5 in Miss Temperance Vane, Enquiries

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by Beatrice Marlowe

London, 1904. The Seven Acts Theatre has opened to rapturous applause, and its proprietor, Quill, has been found dead behind the curtain. With the press already circling and the city's gossips sharpening their pens, a steady hand is required before opening night becomes the scandal of the season. Miss Temperance Vane arrives to provide exactly that. Temperance is an enquiry agent of the new Edwardian sort — sharp-tongued, impeccably dressed, and possessed of an unsettling talent for noticing what the rest of the room has agreed to overlook. Working alongside her devoted assistant Nell, she moves through the theatre's labyrinth of dressing rooms, trapdoors, and carefully staged lies, taking statements from a principal cast still in their finery, a rival producer nursing old grudges, and a stage door keeper whose memory is sharper than anyone has given him credit for. The suspects are many. A valet keeps two ledgers, one of which he would clearly prefer not to discuss. A patron's parlor holds rather more secrets than a respectable drawing room ought. A trapdoor with a mind of its own complicates every alibi. And somewhere in the company's ranks sits a murderer who has not yet realised that Temperance's particular gift is making the guilty wish they had simply stayed home. Seven acts of deception, one opening night, and a clock that will not stop ticking. The clues are fair, the manners impeccable, and the wit sharper than a stage dagger. A perfectly charming entry point for newcomers and a satisfying return for series readers, Book 5 of the Miss Temperance Vane Enquiries delivers the wit, warmth, and airtight plotting that fans of the Violet Carlyle Mysteries, the Duchess of Stortford, and Helen Golden have made their own.