Five hundred people saw the murder — but no one knows who did it! On the face of it, this is the simplest murder Blackstone has ever had to solve. The entire audience at the George Theatre saw Charlotte Devaraux stab William Kirkpatrick with a fake dagger. They gasped as he fell. But they gasped even more when they realized this would be his final curtain call. How did the murderer manage to exchange the fake dagger for a real one? With the help of the brilliant Dr Ellie Carr, a career driven scientist, Blackstone is able to determine that this dagger had not only been exchanged for a real one but had been laced with a most deadly poison. But what is the source of this exotic poison? And who is the mysterious little old man who keeps appearing on the edges of the investigation? Assisted by the amiable Sergeant Patterson, Blackstone follows the trail of the killer from the theatre to the world of the Victorian freak show and into the depths of a lunatic asylum. And though he does not know it, another murder is now brewing. Will he find this killer in time? With a cast of unusual suspects, all of which have the motive and the wherewithal to commit the crime, Blackstone struggles to find which is truth and which is merely part of the act. Praise for Sally Spencer ‘The characters are rich and complex, the plot is unusual and inventive, but it's the delightfully droll, wonderfully witty doses of humour that make the novel such a pleasure’ - Booklist Sally Spencer worked as a teacher both in England and Iran - where she witnessed the fall of the Shah. She now writes full time.