Final Curtain: An Edna Ferber Mystery

Ifkovic’s fifth Edna Ferber mystery (after 2013’s Downtown Strut) provides a splendid view of the highbrow theater culture of another era. In the summer of 1940, Ferber has chosen an abandoned movie theater in Maplewood, N.J., as the stage for her acting debut. She is set to play the lead role in The Royal Family, a widely celebrated play she cowrote with George S. Kaufman, a similarly eminent Broadway figure now signed on to direct the upcoming week of performances. While at first Edna believes her lack of stage experience presents the greatest of her concerns, she soon meets Evan Street, an astonishingly handsome understudy who carries himself like a Hollywood star—much to her dismay. Evan’s frequent quarrels with crew members and unwelcome appearances are troublesome enough, yet the plot truly thickens when someone fatally shoots Evan. While George can’t take anything—including this unexplained homicide—seriously, the redoubtable Edna refuses to let the case go unsolved in this rewarding installment. (June)