Maxwell's Mask

Deena Harrison was one of Leighford High School's 'characters'. She set fire to the toilet block when she was eleven, and threw Ollie Wendell down the science lab stairs soon after her twelfth birthday. But she had the voice of an angel and could act the skin off a rice pudding, so Mr Diamond, the headteacher, invoked all sorts of inclusion clauses and EU Equal Opportunities initiatives to keep her on.

The autumn she came down from Oxford, there was something of a crisis in the drama department at Leighford High. Mrs Carmichael was in danger of losing her baby and the Little Shop of Horrors was in danger of closing down. So Deena came back - just to help out. And people started dying. Oh, just tragic accidents of course - loose cables, carelessly placed ladders. Just minor health and safety issues, really. Somebody was killing the company, and it wasn't Audrey II, the man-eating plant. DCI Henry Hall got to know the Arquebus Theatre quite well that summer. With his...