REVIEW: The Business of Murder – at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Tuesday, June 23 until Saturday, June 27, 2015.

PLAYWRIGHT Richard Harris has a considerable pedigree when it comes to edge of the seat crime thrillers and this offering is right up there with any number of his past successes.

He can easily switch from comedy, such as Stepping Out, to chiller in his writings and has been responsible over the years for such crime solving gems on our tv screens as Shoestring, The Last Detective and the first ten hours of A Touch of Frost, along with stage plays such as Dead Guilty, and this one which enjoyed a nine year stint in the West End.

While the vast majority of crime thrillers exist on the whodunnit scenario, The Business is somewhat different in that we are left waiting, and wondering, about who is going to do something and to whom.

You wouldn’t think it would need much imagination to work it all out with a cast of only three but you would be wrong.

Harris has concocted a remarkably potent mix, and that’s not a crime clue, which will have you double guessing as the tension is cranked up.

Casualty’s Robert Gwilym, who seems to have been a regular face on the small screen for more years than he might wish to remember, is in stellar form in the demanding role of the strange Stone and his psychological game-playing.

He’s hardly off stage, just a few moments here and there, and his drive and complete submersion into his role draws fine support from Paul Opacic (Emmerdale and Hollyoaks) as Superintendent Hallett and Joanna Higson (Shameless and WPC56), who plays Dee - a former journalist now playwright.

Set in the early 1980s the whole action is played out in the living room of Stone’s tiny suburban home which is cleverly laid out on a quality set.

Delving considerably into dark places it provides an intriguing and absorbing offering with a wonderful sprinkling of suspense. It really would be a crime to miss out.