Murder Take Three — Eric Brown

1950s Private Investigator Donald Langham discovers that truth is stranger than fiction when he investigates a murder on an American movie set.

1956. Having just started work as a professional private investigator, Donald Langham's first client is American movie star Suzie Reynard, currently shooting a murder mystery film at Marling Hall, an Elizabethan manor house in the depths of the Norfolk countryside. The film's director -- Suzie's lover -- has been receiving threats and Suzie is convinced his life is in danger.

On arriving at Marling Hall with his fiancée Maria, Langham finds the film set awash with clashing egos, petty jealousies, ill-advised love affairs and seething resentments. Matters come to a head when a body is discovered in the director's trailer.

It would appear to be an open-and-shut case when someone confesses to the murder. Donald and Maria are not convinced -- but why would someone confess to a crime they haven't committed? If Langham is to uncover the truth, he must delve into the past and another murder that took place more than twenty years before…