Kate is hired to accompany a singer and her friend to observe the 1927 solar eclipse. The friend is found in a coma and later dies. Was it murder or an accidental overdose?

Issues of self-medication for PTSD combine with a distinct Phantom of the Opera vibe to make this an enjoyable detective story. ( )

Death in the Stars is the third book I have read in the series and now I feel that I've gotten to know the main characters pretty well. I find this series to be an excellent cozy mystery series to read. For me who usually read crime and thrillers is a cozy mystery book now and then the perfect kind of book to read when I feel that I want a genre change. And, on the plus side are the books in this series stand-alone so it's piece a cake reading a book without having read any of the previous ones.

This book starts off with Kate being contacted by theatre star Selina Fellini who wants Kate's company to a viewing party at Giggleswick School Chapel to see the eclipse. However, Kate suspects that Selina has another reason for contacting her. Kate later learners that Selina is worried about some deaths around her that have occurred during the year and when Selina's friend and co-star Billy Moffatt is found dead does it seem that Selina may be right...

For much of the book does it seem that there is no connection between the deaths. That there is no foul play at all. I mean there seems to be no motive, and the two death's in the past have been ruled accidental. However, Kate is not one to give up, she will dig until she finds out the truth.

Death in the Stars is the kind of book that doesn't rush the story, there are a lot of characters, but not at all hard to keep apart and personally I love the ending, made me think of how in the end Poirot (the tv-series since I haven't read the books) would gather all the suspects to deliver the verdict. Death in the Stars is a good book and I quite enjoyed reading it!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy of the book for an honest review! ( )

Kate receives a note from an acquaintance, telling her that he has passed her name on to a friend of his, a brilliant musical-hall and opera singer who has some troubles that Kate might solve for her. When the woman asks Kate to accompany her to a viewing of a total eclipse, Kate is pleased to attend but concerned that the woman isn’t actually asking for her detective services. Not, that is, until one of the woman’s company, a famous comedy star, is found ill at the eclipse viewing and subsequently dies, making him the third of her company to succumb to an “accident” in 18 months. Kate begins to look into the matter, but events are about to swirl well out of her control, and other lives may hang in the balance….This ninth novel in the Kate Shackleton series is quite entertaining and informative, as usual, especially with respect to the dying breed of music hall artists who are about to be displaced by talking motion pictures, and the attitudes of the time concerning solar eclipses. I caught one anachronism (“boffin” to refer to a scientific expert, a term that was coined during WWII and wouldn’t have been known in 1927), but otherwise the research is well-done and the characters well-drawn. I picked out the guilty party fairly early on, but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the time period and characters; recommended. ( )

This is the last of this series that I'll be reading...

Kate Shackleton receives a letter from someone she once helped alluding to a reference he gave a famous personage. When the diva contacts Kate and asks for Kate's help at an eclipse viewing party, she tells Kate she has a foreboding of something bad to take place.

When during the event the company's comedian disappears & is then found dead it is up to Kate to solve who-done-it.

As it turns out many of the male co-stars of the Diva have also died of mysterious circumstances.

There was too much supposition for me & internal chatter. Kate's usual helpers were not really in the book that much and the other characters left me bored & uninterested.... ( )