A murder mystery by Chris Martin
Ovingham Reading Room, 11 July 2026
It shouldn’t happen to a vet… but it did!
In the picturesque village of Darrowby Sandy Bottom in Sparrowdale, Leo Cooperthwaite runs his small but successful business, the Crooked Stiles Veterinary Practice. Originally a working practice where Leo treated all creatures great and small, Crooked Stiles has moo-ved into the television business and produces “Country Piles”, a show where animals are treated fur real.
But as they gear up for a 10th anniversary special, it becomes clear that the paw-sitive vibes are only a facade. Not everyone in Leo’s team is pleased with how he hogs the limelight, and with the show’s ratings in free foal things are no longer stable. With more and more people feline udderly frustrated with Leo, one of them decides to unleash his inner killer… and soon Leo finds himself cat-astrophically dead!
An audience of budding amateur sleuths joined us in the Reading Room for a barking mad murder mystery, to vet the suspects and identify the purr-petrator of this murder most fowl!
Programme
As with our previous murder mysteries, the play was performed as a whodunnit. There was a break after the first and second acts, to give time for discussion around clues and to complete answer forms. The evening also included an optional pie and peas supper served in the first break, with dessert served in the second break. There were prizes for the funniest answer as well as the correct answer.
The performance was part of a fundraising campaign to help one of our local Scouts reach the World Scout Jamboree in Poland in 2027. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a young person to represent our village on a global stage, learn leadership skills, and build international friendships. Our audience’s generosity in buying tickets went along way to turning a big dream into a reality.