A jealous understudy. A backstage prankster. Will a missing prop steal the show?

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Though it’s summer, Chloe Essex is rehearsing the theatre company’s birthday spectacular, The Nutcracker! But when the Sugar Plum Fairy’s priceless tiara vanishes, she only has hours to find it before the play opens.

With temperatures and tensions rising, the cast and crew discover the spotlight reveals more than anyone bargained for. Chloe must navigate a hotbed of rivalries and mishaps to unravel the mystery and save her last performance.

Can she solve the crime or will the curtain on Chloe’s career and history’s most unconventional Nutcracker fall forever?

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A Word From Lou Collins

I’m a lover of true crime documentaries and mystery dramas: True Crime, Forensic Files, Silent Witness, Luther and Broadchurch, to name a few.

Mix that fascination with a library load of Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, and a nosy disposition and you have the perfect recipe for a mystery writer.

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Laugh-out-loud with this humorous British contemporary cozy mystery series!

Chloe Essex Cozy mysteries


Set in Essex where Lou Collins grew up, join Chloe and her motley crew as they solve crimes in the picturesque village of Speckled Hill. But be warned, when laughter, intrigue and murder combine, survival depends on unlimited supplies of fake tan and a vat of builders’ tea.

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the only way is larceny book cover, comedy and tragedy masks with blood splatter
the only way is murder book cover, a knocked over cocktail glass with red spillage and a lipstick

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What Readers Are Saying​…

Exceptionally good read!
 
So many aspects of this book to love and enjoy!  The little comments by the narrator scattered throughout are delightful.  

Chloe is a ‘woman of a certain age ‘ and we other women of a certain age appreciate a main character who embraces it even though there are “subtle changes imposed by time”…we still enjoy the mental exercise involved in solving a puzzling tale like this mystery! If you’re young you’ll love the mystery as well!  I recommend this book and hope there’ll be more in the series! 
CVAmazon reviewer

Affiliate Disclosure: If you click on some of our links, then we may earn a small commission. For full disclosure, see how this site is funded, and how you are helping us.

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Books by Lou Collins - the only way is larceny book cover, comedy and tragedy masks with blood splatter

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