It’s Christmas in Penstowan, and local amateur dramatics group the Penstowan Players are putting on their annual pantomime.

This year it’s ‘Aladdin’, and half the town have been drafted in to help, including Shirley Parker, who only has a small part in the chorus but will no doubt upstage everybody, and Tony Penhaligon, who’s treading the boards as the baddie, Abanazar. Ex-Metropolitan police officer turned caterer Jodie Parker has managed to get away with not appearing, but only if she agrees to cater the opening night party.

But it’s not just terrible jokes, quick costume changes and backstage chaos that wait in the wings… When the Widow Twankey (otherwise known as Tim, the mayor’s husband) trips over a corpse lying next to Aladdin’s bloodstained magic lamp, it’s time for Jodie and her partner, DCI Nathan Withers, to find the killer.

Was it the genie of the lamp or an overly harsh theatre critic? Or does someone in the Penstowan Players have a dark secret they will do anything to protect?

'Leitch crafts a Cornwall that I want to live in – vibrant, funny and dripping with mystery and mayhem. Brilliant’ Jonathan Whitelaw, author of The Bingo Hall Detectives

‘A terrific summer read… a thumping good whodunnit; this is a murder mystery that wears a flower in its hair and invites us to kick off our shoes’ J.M. Hall

‘The book equivalent of catching up with your favourite old friends over a glass of wine or three… the observational humour is spot on’ Jo Middleton

‘[A] fun, feel-good factor and an intriguing mystery to be solved. And pies. I loved it’ Stephanie Austin, author of the Devon Mysteries series