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

Maggie looked up and frowned. "Do I know you?"


"Well, yes, but I was also in the murder mystery play at The Hostelry. I was the victim. I mean, I wasn't the real victim - we all know who that was - but I was the one who was supposed to get shot."


Maggie gasped. "Oh, my God, of course! Wow, sorry. I didn't recognize you out of context."


"That's okay. There was a lot going on that night. But, um, what are you doing here?"


"I was let go. Candy Harrison is a client of Sarah's. She knew I was out of a job and that Sarah needed help, so she made it happen."


"Oh, well, that makes sense," Isobel said, putting it together. "I mean, without the judge, there's not really a job, is there?"


Maggie squinted in displeasure. "I was let go before he died. That morning, in fact."


Isobel cocked her head, surprised. "But you were at the party."


Chapter 38