West End Television are planning a new situation-comedy series, to be called The Strutters. From the outset, things go horribly wrong with the new series. Odd accidents — if they are accidents — remove, one by one, the sharp-tongued Production Assistant, the self-effacing script-writer, the hearty Floor Manager. Death even takes from us the revolting Yorkshire terrier, Cocky, who’s the idol of the indestructible Dame Aurelia Howarth, theatrical star for fifty years.

There’s no discernible pattern in all this, but Simon Brett’s regular sleuth, the bit-player Charles Paris, is confidently on the trail of another mass murderer. But the bizarre solution, brilliantly led up to, surprises even him.