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

James took their drinks - vodka tonic for him, chardonnay for Lily - with a trembling hand. He knew it was a bad idea, but there was no earthly way he was going to get through the reception without help, and if he left now, it would only fan the rumor flames. He had to tough it out, at least until after the entrée. The worst of it, the receiving line, was behind him, and he'd managed to dash past Jayla as she was being smothered with wet kisses by a big, burly cousin who'd once had a crush on her. James had given Michael's hand a dutiful shake without looking him in the eye, and then ducked out of the church and down the street to call Isobel.


Chapter 24