A Bullet in the Ballet by Caryl Brahms & S.J. Simon, for the #1937Club

Title: A Bullet in the Ballet
Author: Caryl Brahms & S.J. Simon
Publication: Library of Crime Classics, paperback, originally published in 1937
Genre: Mystery/series

Description: It is opening night of the London season for the Stroganoff Ballet, a less than first-rate company that is putting on Petroushka, when the male lead, Anton Palook, collapses with a bullet in his head, just as he should be taking his curtain calls.

Quick Curtain by Alan Melville

Title: Quick Curtain
Author: Alan Melville
Publication: British Library Crime Classics/Poisoned Poisoned Pen Press, paperback, originally published in 1934
Genre: Mystery
Setting: England

Description: It’s opening night at the Grosvenor Theatre for Blue Music, a musical produced by the impressive (at least to himself) impresario, Douglas B. Douglas, and everything is going well until actor Hilary Foster pulls out what is meant to be a prop revolver and aims it at the leading man.

Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg

Title: Take a Bow
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Publication: Scholastic, hardcover, 2012
Genre: Young Adult
Setting: New York

Description: Emme, Sophie, Carter and Ethan are seniors at an exclusive performing arts high school in New York. Emme is a talented songwriter whose songs are usually performed by her friend Sophie.

Murder in Three Acts by Agatha Christie

Title: Murder in Three Acts (US title), aka Three Act Tragedy (UK title)
Author: Agatha Christie
Publication: Dodd, Mead & Co., hardcover, 1934
Genre: Mystery
Setting: 20th century Great Britain

Description: Sir Charles Cartwright is a retired actor who has built a charming home in Cornwall where he enjoys entertaining.  At a house party that includes guests from London as well as locals, his secretary warns the group will be 13 at dinner unless she joins them.

A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood - coming of age in Earnest

Title: A Snowfall of Silver
Author: Laura Wood
Publication: Scholastic UK, paperback, 2020
Genre: YA
Setting: 1930s England

Description: Freya, the younger sister of Lou from A Sky Painted Gold, has always wanted to be an actress, so leaves Cornwall dramatically at 18, fortuitously meeting Kit McKay on the train to London.

Death in the Grand Manor by Anne Morice - Reading the Theatre Month

Title: Death in the Grand Manor: Tessa Crichton #1
Author: Anne Morice
Publication: Dean Street Press, April 2021 (originally published in 1970)
Genre: Mystery series
Setting: 20th century England

Description: Actress Tessa Crichton, temporarily between engagements, accepts an invitation to spend a few weeks in the country with her cousin, Toby, and his daughter, Ellen, an observant 11-year-old, while Toby’s second wife Matilda, also an actress, is on tour with a new play. 

Noel Streatfeild's overlooked series about child actress Gemma Bow

Titles: Gemma, Gemma and Sisters
Author: Noel Streatfield
Publication: Dell Yearling, paperbacks (originally published in 1968)
Genre: Juvenile fiction/series
Setting: 20th century England

Description: Gemma is a child film star, daughter of actress Rowena Bow, but as she approaches adolescence there have been no parts for a while, which frightens her. When her mother is offered a part in America, Gemma is sent to live with cousins she has never met, 150 miles from London.

Black Banner Players, third in the Bannermere series by Geoffrey Trease

Title: Black Banner Players (Bannermere #3)
Author: Geoffrey Trease
Illustrations: Richard Kennedy
Foreword: Jocelyn Payne, Introduction: Sally Dore
Publication: Girls Gone By, trade paperback, 2005 (originally published in 1952)
Genre: Juvenile series
Setting: England, 1950s

Description: Bill Melbury and his friend Tim go to a grammar school that is too old-fashioned to allow the nearby girls’ high school, attended by Bill’s sister Sue and her friend Penny Morchard, to participate in its drama productions.

The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown - a book that inspired Maggie Smith and Eileen Atkins

Title: The Swish of the Curtain 

Author: Pamela Brown (1924-1989) 

Publication: Pushkin Press, paperback, 2018 (originally published 1941) 

Genre: Children’s Fiction 

Setting: 20th century England

Description: Lynette and Jeremy Darwin and their friends next door, Sandra and pert nine-year-old Madelaine Fayne, are pleased when a new family with three children roughly their ages moves into the nearby Corner House.