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TV and stage star Polly Pepper is once again going to play Mame on the stage – but still not on Broadway. It's at a small theater in Glendale, California. Polly once again has hopes that this show will get her to Broadway, but when the director, Karen Richards turns up dead backstage, clobbered with an Emmy, things go bad. The artistic director, Gerold Goss, becomes the new director and he isn't shy that he never wanted Polly for his production and that she's staying only because of her iron-clad contract. He also makes changes in the cast, people he had ordered Karen to fire the day before. On top of that he brings his girlfriend in to play a role and Polly sees that many people in the cast are angry enough to kill. Soon the police make an arrest. Polly's co-star in the production, Sharon Fletcher is arrested for the murder, mainly because it was her Emmy that was the murder weapon. Polly sees right away that it's a set up and that Sharon isn't the murderer. But who is? Polly is certain it is one of the other people from this Mame production. She and her entourage, her adult gay son and her maid Placenta, work together to use Polly's newest man, Detective Randy Archer, the lead on the case, to get them inside information about the cops' investigation. But as Polly takes time from her backbreaking rehearsals to get into people's faces and ask pointed questions about the murder, she also gets into terrible trouble too. But don't even dare ask her to let another thespian down. Polly will even put her babies, her Emmys, on the line to get to the truth! And that's the height of selflessness! Very much a humorous look at the people who act and put television and stage entertainment together for enjoyment of the audience, FINAL CURTAIN is more about the characters in the theater than it is about solving a murder case. From the start no one actually seems to care that Karen was killed. The fact that an Emmy was used to kill her made the people feel worse for the Emmy than for the woman. Polly is an amalgam of well-known older stars. In fact the book makes a point that the character of Polly is not Carol Burnett or Mitzi Gaynor, even though Polly has much of the same background that those two. But I digress. Amongst the many, many, bottles of refreshing champagne and hours of high stepping rehearsal, Polly does manage to investigate, but as she's not really a Miss Marple in any form – she relies on straight talk and bumbling shenanigans to find the truth, or really, until the truth finds her. FINAL CURTAIN is written for entertainment's sake, but not necessarily for mystery readers. Read it to get a kick out of Polly's fun "life is a banquet" look at life and not for a sharp mind given to solving crimes.
Reviewed by A. L. Katz, January 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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