The Last Resort — John Barber

In this final part of the Fordhamton Trilogy the Mayor suggests an Arts Festival as a means of improving the town's image following their award by a national radio station as the third most boring town in Britain

Unfortunately the first Fordhamton Arts Festival gets off to a bad start.

The stand-in for the school's production of The Real Inspector Hound is found murdered during the dress rehearsal.

She is discovered to be working as an Intelligence Officer for the local US Listening Post which has taken over Oates Hall.

The investigation is handed to the recently promoted Detective Inspector Miles Davis who has been working with a special UK/US intelligence gathering unit. He is not remembered fondly in town but tries hard to behave in a more sociable manner which to his surprise begins to yield results.

Suspicion immediately falls on the organiser of the Festival Organiser and Art Teacher Jeremy Hawkins owing to his past as a student activist. The previous shady lives of some of the other teacher at the school taking part are slowly revealed and the list of suspects just keeps growing.

Davis' investigations are not helped by the anarchic nature of the Festival exhibits, nor a second strange accident to another member of the cast. As a last resort Davis takes the part of Inspector Hound for the live performance and unmasks the murderer whilst finding love in the most unusual circumstances.