A Farce at Full Sail

As master costume cutter, prompter, and secret logistics fixer aboard the converted privateer frigate Kócsag, Borbála Gyöngyössy already has her hands full keeping thirty prima donnas from mutinying on the high seas. But when the company's insufferable leading tenor takes a stage blunderbuss blast to the chest during the third act—loaded with genuine iron grape-shot instead of dried lavender—Borbála's quiet afternoon dissolves in black powder. With the frigate's draconian first mate locking the troupe belowdecks and threatening to maroon them on a desert spit within forty-eight hours unless the killer is produced, Borbála must treat shredded silk, sabotaged rigging, and backstage rivalries as forensic evidence. Armed with her tailor's shears and an encyclopedic knowledge of theatrical vanity, she sets out to unmask a murderer who treats manslaughter as high art.