Murder at the Matinee is the sequel to Death on the Pier, a book I was quite the fan of as it felt like a modern day Agatha Christie set almost 100 years ago. It was a book I’d likely now dub a “cosy crime” where there’s no real danger and it’s just all about interviewing suspects until we get to the route of the problem. Murder at the Matinee is exactly the same.
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Murder at the Matinee picks up some time after Death on the Pier with our main protagonist Bertie Carrol well involved in the theatre business. One day his attention is made aware of a play in which the posters have been amended to suggest there’s going to be a killing during one of the acts. When the killing doesn’t happen during the play but instead a body is found after, despite not actually being a Detective, he’s once again pulled into trying to solve the mystery.
Murder at the Matinee plot – 4/5
As aforementioned, Murder at the Matinee follows a very similar formula to Death on the Pier – there’s a murder and it ends up being Bertie Carroll’s job to solve this murder by going around and interviewing everybody who’s involved and everyone sort of seems like they could have been a suspect.
It’s a tried and tested formula that as a reader is very comfortable and easy to slip into, if not a little predictable.
What wasn’t predictable however was who the actual killer could be. With these sort of mysteries I do wonder how far along into the story the author decides the killer, but either way, the resolution in Murder at the Matinee made sense and was satisfactory enough!
Murder at the Matinee characters – 4.25/5
One of my favourite elements of Jamie West’s two books so far are the characters he brings in. In typical Agatha Christie fashion these people are often larger than life characters with big personalities and they either lean on the side of very defensive or very nice with little in between.
Bertie Carroll has a little more going on outside of the actual crime in this book too with hints to a potential romantic side plot and a comedic feud going on with another playwright which adds another dimension to the character which are elements I believe will inevitably decide if people will be coming back to the series later or not.
Murder at the Matinee final rating – 4/5
Murder at the Matinee follows on from Death on the Pier in almost every way. It’s a cosy crime that anybody who’s a fan of the Agatha Christie model of “big cast of characters all suspected of a murder and our main protagonist must interview them all” will feel right at home. It doesn’t massively improve on Death on the Pier in any way and feels like it could its own book in its own right but if you enjoy this style of crime it’s got some big personalities and a resounding resolution.
