Dead Silence (A Village Library Mystery, #13)

When the show must go on, someone's willing to kill for an encore. Whitby's Fourth of July celebration should be the perfect small-town spectacle-patriotic floats, community theater performances, and librarian Ann Beckett serving as Grand Marshal with the best seat in the house. But the holiday festivities take a deadly turn when the theater director is found murdered, and the show that was meant to bring the community together becomes the backdrop for secrets someone will kill to protect. As Ann and her fiancé, newspaper editor Grayson Phillips, dig into the victim's final days, they discover that Whitby's close-knit theater community harbors more drama offstage than on. With a cast full of suspects-from bitter ex-fiancées to resentful family members-Ann must navigate small-town loyalties and wounded egos to unmask a killer. But when a second victim falls, Ann realizes the murderer isn't finished with their deadly performance. With both deaths connected to the theater, someone in the tight-knit community is using their insider knowledge for murder. And they're not above making a librarian the final act. Can Ann solve the mystery before the curtain falls on another victim?