The Godrick Theatre is one of the most impressive buildings in Widdlington, and it is about to put on The Thistlebridge Conundrum, a mystery play staged by the Widdlington Amateur Dramatic Group. Directed by, written by, and guest-starring the rather terrifying Cynthia Cecil, it all goes a bit awry when she drops dead during rehearsal. Especially because she hadn’t given the cast the final pages of the script and they seem to have disappeared…

Fortunately, as her mother is working behind the scenes on the play, Bonnie Montgomery aka the world’s greatest detective Montgomery Bonbon, is in the stalls when Cynthia collapses. Everybody in the cast has a motive – but unfortunately for Bonbon, everybody has an ironclad alibi…

Well, that was disappointing. It took ages for the first decent poo joke. Although I should be clear, that was the only disappointment. And sometimes it’s good to wait…

This is the fifth Montgomery Bonbon mystery and the fourth that I’ve read. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m about four and a half times the recommended reading age, but these books are so infectiously fun – and funny – that they are repeatedly some of the highlights of my reading in a month. Beckett-King is a fabulous writer, being witty at various levels, from highbrow to, well, poo, but also knows how to construct a clever plot and, possibly most importantly, make you care about the protagonist. The bit in the final chapter and the last paragraph of the epilogue almost brought a tear to my eye. I remind you, this is supposed to be a book for kids and it’s making a distinctly grumpy old curmudgeon well up inside.

And Mr Beckett-King, if I may? In your afterword, you claim to have “borrowed” from mystery writers of the past – well, “dead mystery writers” is the phrase you chose. I’ve read a lot of novels by “dead mystery writers” and you should take credit where credit is due. The alibi-busting here is very clever (and very simple) and I don’t recall ever seeing anything of that structure before. It caught me out, despite being blindingly obvious in hindsight.

Oh, and the illustrations by Claire Powell are as magnificent as ever. Not an art reviewer, but I love her style, which suits the book perfectly.

Scandal On The Stage is out now in paperback and ebook – not sure how the piccies will work on a Kindle though – why not give it, or one of the other books in the series, a go? I promise you, you’ll havea  great time.