A slayer is on the loose and, in typical fashion, comedian Frankie Funnybone has blundered into the killer's sights.
It is 1956 and Frankie's stellar career has hit the skids since we last encountered him five years before. The 41-year-old comic has resigned himself to an uneventful summer of shows at the end of the pier in Mellish, a rundown seaside resort on the Lancashire coast. But how wrong can you be
After narrowly escaping becoming the the fiendish Crossword Killer's third victim, Frankie realises the key to the mystery lies in what happened during the war to his cousin's husband Joe Trueman, who is leading the murder inquiry. Will Frankie survive to bring the curtain down on the killer's reign of terror? Or will he die on stage for the very last time?