"Fun characters among the dark deeds" - review of FRIGHT ON STAGE RIGHT

FRIGHT ON STAGE RIGHT by GB Ralph (Sept 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

It’s opening night at the theatre and Addison Harper has front-row seats with Sergeant Jake Murphy. This might just be his perfect date.

The variety show promises spooky Halloween fun, ghoulish drag queens, frightening musical numbers, and the scariest thing of audience participation. Of course, the unlucky victim dragged from the safety of his seat is a mortified Addison. In a production full of twists and turns, he has no idea what’s coming next but nobody could have anticipated witnessing a sudden, absolutely unscripted, and very real death.

A dreadful accident? Or was it foul play? As the curtain falls before a horror-struck audience, Addison Harper finds himself once again in the spotlight at centre stage....

Like Cabot Cove with Jessica Fletcher, or St Mary Mead with Miss Marple, the fictional small town of Milverton in the Manawatū region of New Zealand’s North Island is a bucolic place with a quirky array of locals that on the surface seems like a great place to live or visit. Other than having far more than its fair share of murders, thanks to cosy mystery writer GB Ralph.

This fourth novel in Ralph’s charming Milverton Mysteries series sees Wellington city slicker, marketing man, and accidental amateur sleuth Addison Harper back again in Milverton, dealing with the creaking house inherited from his uncle, as well as a romantic entanglement with local police Sergeant Jake Murphy. In Fright on Stage Right, Addison has made the move to Milverton more permanent; he’s about to begin a new job with the mayor, promoting the town to tourists.

But first, date night with Jake, front row at a local Halloween variety show packed with spooky fun, ghoulish drag queens, and audience participation. Then Addison is dragged onstage with the mayor to judge the contestants, only to witness a very sudden, very unscripted onstage death.

Accident, negligence, or something far more sinister

Ralph creates a lovely tone in an intriguing cosy mystery laced with plenty of fun characters and grin-inducing elements among the dark deeds, suspects, and red herrings. A lighter read, really enjoyable; those who love TV shows like Murder, She Wrote or The Brokenwood Mysteries may also fall in love with the Milverton mysteries. Even as someone who more often reads darker, grittier crime fiction, I’m certainly looking forward to the next instalment.

[This review was first published in the Fall 2025 issue of Deadly Pleasures magazine in the USA]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.