Author:
Writer, singer and actor Joanne Sydney Lessner draws on her own experiences pursuing a performing career in New York City for her acclaimed Isobel Spice Mysteries. With her husband, composer/conductor Joshua Rosenblum, she has co-authored several musicals, including the cult hit Fermat’s Last Tango and Einstein’s Dreams, based on the celebrated novel by Alan Lightman, opening Off Broadway in November 2019. Her play Critical Mass received its Off Broadway premiere in October 2010. Joanne is also a regular contributor to Opera News and a graduate of Yale University.

Dinner theater can be a death sentence. 

Actress Isobel Spice and her best friend Delphi Kramer are thrilled to finally have an opportunity to perform together, even if it’s just a cheesy interactive murder mystery at a judge’s lifetime achievement dinner. But when Isobel’s dramatic death scene is upstaged by a real murder and Delphi is left holding the still-smoking gun, Isobel drops the role of victim and assumes the role of detective. With the help of her precocious brother Percival and her reluctant temp agent James Cooke, Isobel peels back layers of deception to reveal a shocking abuse of power—and no shortage of suspects eager to deliver justice to a man who denied it to so many.

And Justice for Some

Isobel heard Candy before she saw her. She must have been greeting every secretary in every cubicle, plus some of the lawyers, her repeated bright "hellos" echoing down the floor. Finally she turned the corner, dressed in a sleek black pantsuit and clutching a Chanel tote.


"Hello, I'm here to see - " Candy stopped in her tracks. "What are you doing here?" 


A cascade of nervous giggles burst from Isobel's mouth. "Yeah, me! Crazy coincidence, huh?"


Candy's jaw flapped downward and then reset itself. "What the hell is going on? Where's Sarah?"


"Do you want to sit down, and I can tell you the whole story?" Isobel gestured to a chair she'd pulled over for the purpose.


Candy's gaze flicked upward in annoyance. "No, I don't want to sit down. I want to see my lawyer, who I was told was expecting me at four o'clock."


Chapter 21