« Ruddy Gore » Kerry Greenwood

Running late to the Hinkler gala performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s *Ruddigore*, she meets some thugs in a dark alley and handles them convincingly before they can ruin her silver dress. Phryne then finds that she has rescued a gorgeous Chinese man, Lin Chung, and his grandmother, and is briefly mistaken for a deity. Denying divinity but accepting cognac, she later continues safely to the theater. But it’s an unexpected evening as her night is again interrupted by a most bizarre death onstage. What links can Phryne possibly find between the ridiculously entertaining plot of *Ruddigore*, the city’s Chinese community, and the actors treading the boards of His Majesty’s Theatre?Drawn backstage and onstage, Phryne must solve an old murder and find a new murderer, and, of course, banish the theater’s ghost, who seems likely to kill again.