Leading Lady

On a quiet island off the Maine coast, the summer theater company has brought more than actors to town. When a murder shatters the pastoral summer nights, the island's fragile social order cracks open, revealing jealousy, ambition, and secrets that vacationers would rather leave buried. The victim lies in the wings, and every performer, stagehand, and patron has something to hide. As the local sheriff calls in the district attorney and the theater's director throws his own resources into the investigation, the three men must untangle a web of backstage grudges and forbidden affairs before the killer strikes again. Bonner writes with sharp wit and period precision, turning what could be a straightforward whodunnit into a knowing portrait of small-town hypocrisy disguised as genteel culture. The island setting becomes its own character, a place where outsiders arrive to reinvent themselves, and where someone has paid the ultimate price for a new identity.