Ruddy Gore: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries #7 by Kerry Greenwood

Phryne is running late while going to a play and she takes a short cut through the alley.  She comes upon a group of three men who are beating on an old woman.  The woman's companion is trying to defend her but there are too many there for one man.  She helps them fend off the bad men.  They are Chinese and thank her but will tell her nothing about what was going on.  She finds herself intrigued by the man and she invites him for dinner thinking she'll inquire then about what happened...

Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It is being published today.

Phryne does a little detecting on the side and when one of the actors collapses on the stage and later dies of poison, the manager asks her to look into it.  She does.  She learns lots of interesting things but she can't see how it adds up.  When another actor gets ill from the same poison and another employee dies in an attempt to kill Phryne, she decides to get serious and find the murderer.  Her new boyfriend helps her with that because he has knowledge of "magic" and can show her how the ghost is appearing.  

The acting community has been in the business for years, and everyone had secrets.  Weeding through them to get the answer she's looking for is hard.  Especially since there is more than one killer in the group...