Murder at the Movies — A.E. Eddenden

A policeman tracks a killer inspired by 1939's hit films in “an entertaining read . . . chock-full of menace, momentum, and multiple Movietone moments” (Booklist).
 
Inspector Albert V. Tretheway is perturbed when his beloved bowler hat disappears in what seems to be a relatively harmless prank. Three weeks later Tretheway and Constable Jake Small investigate a nervous neighbor's report of an anonymous phone tip that her long-dead husband is in her garage. What they find there instead is a live horse -- wearing Tretheway's missing bowler.
 
As the pranks escalate, Tretheway connects them and surmises they are inspired by the films showing at the local theater in Fort York, Ontario. The guessing game begins. Which of this year's Hollywood releases is next? When the fourth prank involves a pre-dug grave, the Hindu goddess Kali, and the murder of a popular Bugle-Major, Tretheway spearheads a chase, both cerebral and physical, through more movie murder adventures to a fiery, spectacular finale . . .
 
“[An] amiable sleuth . . . [A] gently satirical series.” -- The New York Times Book Review