The Celluloid Sentry

Lights, camera… murder in Crofter’s Green.

A Homefront Sleuths mystery of wartime secrets, film-set scandal, and murder behind the klieg lights.

June 1942 brings rare excitement to Crofter’s Green when the Ministry of Information’s Crown Film Unit arrives to shoot a patriotic film, Metal for Our Men. Soon the quiet village is swarming with actors, cameras, cables—and more drama than any script could hold.

But the glamour fades fast.

When a young Home Guard sentry is found murdered near the ruins of St. Swithun’s Abbey—his body wrapped in celluloid film—the Homefront Sleuths know the film crew has brought more than movie magic to their peaceful corner of Kent.

The only clues?

A film canister the victim tried to hide…

A scrap of paper covered in code…

And a film set where everyone seems to be acting.

As Evie, Alice, Dorothy, and Alfie quietly gather clues among the temperamental cast and suspicious crew, Harry and Nigel begin untangling a web of lies. Meanwhile, Blake and Katherine race to decipher a cryptic message that hints the chaos on set is no accident.

Because hiding behind the klieg lights is a far more dangerous production.

The deeper the Sleuths dig, the more they fear the shadowy spymaster Beckett is using the film crew as cover for a plot that could cripple Britain’s wartime defenses.

When Nigel is forced into a dangerous undercover role, the case turns suddenly—and painfully—personal. With trust strained, time running short, and a master of disguise moving among them, the Sleuths must expose the killer before the final scene ends in catastrophe.

Lights are blazing. Cameras are rolling. And the murderer is still on the set.