A MURDER mystery evening is hoped to help promote a book campaign and encourage unsuspecting booklovers to dust off their jackets and be inspired. The Stevenage Lytton Players, an amateur dramatic and musical society, will be putting on the event as part

A MURDER mystery evening is hoped to help promote a book campaign and encourage unsuspecting booklovers to dust off their jackets and be inspired.

The Stevenage Lytton Players, an amateur dramatic and musical society, will be putting on the event as part of the 1book4stevenage 2006 programme - a project which aims to promote literacy in the town.

The plot centres around nine detectives - parodies of famous sleuths - who are invited to a castle on an island and told that one of them is going to die.

Script writer David Slade, a member of the Lytton Players, said: "It is an interactive play and the audience can help to solve the crime.

"The characters come out of the scene and get the help of the audience. "The audience will be fed a string of clues and they can even interview the characters.

"It's all a bit tongue in cheek really with characters like Miss Marbles, Shirley Holmes and Herbert Parrott, a Belgian detective from the east end of London.

"The only serious bit is the reason for the murder.

"The rest is just for laughs."

The audience can fill in a form at the end of the performance to say who they believe to be the murderer.

Tickets include food and a draw from all the correct answers will be made, with a selection of prizes awarded to the competition winners.

The murder mystery night takes place at The Lytton Theatre, in Vardon Road, Pin Green, Stevenage, on October 13 at 7.30pm.

To book tickets - at £10 each - call 0870 777 7620 or 01438 726847.

l Film critic Barry Norman will be giving a history of crime movies at North Hertfordshire College Community Hall, Stevenage, on October 14 at 2pm. Entry is free but tickets must be booked in advance. For more information call 01438 737333.

l A talk about hard-boiled detectives by author Ken Follett is also scheduled to be held at the library in Stevenage. It begins at 11am on October 21. For more information, call 01438 737333.