Shakespeare in the Catskills Mystery Books in Order

Charlotte Fairfax comes to this series with one foot in British theater and the other in the Catskills. Formerly a costume mistress with the Royal Shakespeare Company, she now works as costume designer for the Catskills Shakespeare Theater Company in upstate New York. That job makes her both insider and observer. She knows how productions really run, who is feuding with whom, which star is panicking, and what people say when they think only the wardrobe department is listening.

The theater company is the engine of the series. It is not a grand institution with endless money and polish. It is a working company trying to survive, grow, please patrons, and put on good Shakespeare in a resort setting that still carries echoes of the old Catskills. That gives the books a built in mix of art and practicality. There are donors to charm, actors to manage, schedules to rescue, and always the question of how much chaos a show can absorb before opening night.

That matters because each mystery grows directly out of production life. Untimely Death drops Charlotte into a deadly Romeo and Juliet. Ill Met by Murder turns a fundraising performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream into a case full of family money and buried secrets. Much Ado About Murder brings in a guest actress, a new director, clashing artistic visions, and a supposed suicide that Charlotte does not buy. The Shakespeare titles are not decoration. They set the mood and often sharpen the irony.

Backstage, nobody keeps secrets for long.

Charlotte is a good sleuth because costume people see everything. Actors change in front of her. Directors rant in front of her. Patrons and board members think she is too busy pinning hems to notice what they are hiding. She notices anyway. Wealthy widow Paula Van Dusen also becomes an important ally, which gives Charlotte access to the donor side of the theater world as well as the backstage side. Between them, they can move through rehearsal rooms, country houses, hotel spaces, and fundraising events with unusual freedom.

The tone is classic cozy with a theatrical twist. There is murder, of course, but also fittings, rehearsal nerves, opening-night pressure, and the particular comedy of people who care a lot about line readings and costume changes. Duncan enjoys the glamour and the nonsense in equal measure. She writes the Catskills as a place trying to reinvent itself, which gives the series a little extra heart beneath the mystery plot.

If you like whodunits where setting does real work, this series is easy to warm to. Read the three books in order and you can watch Charlotte's place in the company deepen as the theater itself changes. For readers who enjoy stage gossip, Shakespeare references, and smart amateur sleuthing, these books are a very pleasant seat in the house.