Character List


Something Wicked (Death On Demand #3)

Shane Petree ex-surfer star is a total disaster.
He was having an affair with T.K.'s wife and teenaged daughter
Shane's rich wife Sheridan is financing the play so they are stuck with the total jerk. god-awful house lovely on the outside, rotten on the inside.
Hunter Prentiss was a roistering, self-made oil man, Sheridan's father
Sam Haznine, the famous Broadway director. is a washed up director
Tonelda Divine—and she’s going to be a great actress
Eugene wants his role back Eugene Ferramond was born to play Teddy Roosevelt "Officer O’Hara"
Circuit Solicitor Bryce Posey
Dick and Sandy Buckner
Laurel Darling Roethke, Max's mother, hodgepodge of New Age philosophies,
Rudolf Roethke was Laurel’s fifth husband
Mrs. Henrietta Brawley, (Henny) her long-time and perhaps most avid customer, a great "Abby"
Ben Parotti’s Bait Shop and Bar,
Emma Clyde Mystery novelist
Burt Conroy stage manager
Harley Edward Jenkins III wanted to open another retail shop instead of theater, all 295 pounds of him, resplendent in red dinner jacket and green-and-red-checked trousers,
Max as Mortimer.
Annie to come onstage as Elaine.
Hugo Wolf over six feet and solidly built "Jonathan", retired trial lawyer
Carla Fontaine, the set designer and chief carpenter, dark hair patrician face
Arthur Killeen, the local druggist who played Dr. Einstein
Horton family
Cindy, the nubile teenage daughter who fancied herself the 80s’ answer to Marilyn Monroe
T.K. Horton looked to be odd man out on every front,
Her mother, Janet, was no prize in the brains department, as "Martha"

Max made a list of the cast for Act II: Henny Brawley as Abby, Janet Horton as Martha, Hugo Wolf as Jonathan, Arthur Killeen as Dr. Einstein, Shane Petree as Teddy, Annie as Elaine, himself as Mortimer, and Eugene Ferramond as Officer O’Hara.




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Hart - Design for Murder (Death On Demand #2)

Annie Laurance - owner Death on Demand
Ingrid DOD clerk, springy gray hair in tight curls
Max Darling - boyfriend PI
Ben Parotti ferry captain

Idell Gordon Swamp Fox Inn owner
Corinne Prichard Webster blonde president of Chastain Historical Preservation Society.
Marybelle maid
Tim Bond painter curator at the Prichard Museum.
Sybil Chastain Giacomo - slut, she makes them sit up and take notice.
Lucy Haines, a member of the Board. - librarian
Gail Prichard niece
Bobby Frazier, reporter for the Chastain Courier. boyfriend
Mr. Roscoe Merrill board member of Preservation Society
Jessica
Dr. John Sanford’s foolish plan to expand clinc
Edith Ferrier. Red Cross office coordinator & board member
Miss Dora Brevard, who is the mainstay of the Society. ebony cane in one withered hand is permanent secretary to the Board.”
Louisa Binning, the secretary of Preservation Society
Mrs. Brawley DOD customer
Harley Edward Jenkins III control forty percent of the stock in Halcyon Development Inc.


Sybil Chastain Giacomo. Max’s eyes gleamed. Annie described
her as a Ruebens nude in an Oscar de la Renta dress. With
the mouth of a termagant. Awesome.
Lucy Haines. Sounded nice. Annie said she looked rather
serious. A lean, tanned woman with a firm handshake. A
librarian.
Roscoe Merrill. A stalwart of the community, obviously.
Treasurer of the Society. A lawyer with a face that kept its
own counsel. He’d promised La Grande Dame Webster he’d
look into the letter, but all the while he kept stressing that it
was better to drop the matter.
Dr. John Sanford. Intense, self-absorbed, arrogant. And
something in the letter made him mad.
Edith Ferrier. The letter made her mad, too. Why did she
take it personally? And she didn’t like Corinne. Why?
Miss Dora Brevard, permanent secretary of the Board, and
Chastain’s ancient historian in residence. But she seemed to aim
her venom at Sybil, not Corinne.
Gail Prichard. The letter writer said Mrs. Moneypot’s niece
was seeing a very unsuitable man. Obviously, that was a
reference to the combative reporter.



Books Mentioned
Barnard, Robert
O'Marie , Sister Carol Anne Sister Mary Helen
Mortimer, John Rumpole of the Bailey
Hugo, Victor Les Miserables
Clark, Douglas Premedicated Murder
Clinton-Baddeley,V. C. Death's Bright Dart
Heard, H.F. A Taste for Honey
Huxley, Elspeth Joscelin Grant The African Poison Murders
Simpson, Dorothy Last Seen Alive
Langton, Jane Emily Dickinson Is Dead
Agatha Christie’s Cards on the Table
Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye
Virginia Rich’s The Baked Bean Supper Murders.
John Dickson Carr’s The Hollow Man
Gwendolyn Butler’s Coffin in Oxford
Sax Rohmer’s Fire-Tongue (finally had to ask his friend Harry Houdini to solve)









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'Arsenic and Old Lace' is one of Annie's favorites, and she's happy to be a part of the local summer production, despite little acts of sabotage and Shane the pain, who can't be bothered to learn his lines. They even have an ex-Broadway director, anxious to make a comeback. The tricks take an ugly turn, ending in a murder.

Enter Posey, the kind of attorney who gives the profession a bad name. He hates persons of inherited wealth, so of course he's happy to pick Max Darling for the killer. Worse, he's not interested in pursuing any leads that lead away from Max. Max isn't worried, but Annie is. She's being driven crazy.

There are two running subplots. One is the ideas Laurel, Max's eccentric mother, has for Max and Annie's wedding in September. Annie wants a simple wedding. Laurel wants an New Age extravaganza. You know Annie must love Max very much since she's willing to accept Laurel as her mother-in-law. (Unlike Annie, I wouldn't have minded the unusual wedding cake -- so long as it tasted okay.)

The other subplot is Henny dressing up and taking on the mannerisms of female fictional sleuths as she does her own investigation of the murder. Don't worry if you don't know them all (I don't), because Annie identifies them for the reader.

There's plenty of suspense in the scene where Annie is trying to get the killer to admit to the crimes. It was a bit in the spirit of 'Arsenic and Old Lace,' come to think of it.

As for the usual five paintings of mystery books contest, I've read them all and figured out only one painting, and it wasn't the one for the book I'd read not six months ago. Drat!

The narration is good. It added to the suspense and to my instant loathing of Posey, who will return. ( )

May 30, 1999
Something Wicked
Carolyn Hart

I’ve read that Carolyn Hart is often compared to Agatha Christie. I don’t really see it, since to me Agatha Christie represents all that is English and quaint and sneaky, whereas Carolyn Hart is nothing like that. Her books are entertaining, though. Annie irritates me a little with her perfect life: owns a mystery bookstore, is married to a rich, good-looking guy with whom she’s thoroughly infatuated, and the sexual references are just corny and stupid. The South Carolina setting turns me off, as do all Southern locales. Still, I really do enjoy the series.

Anyway, a “summer stock” cast is putting on a presentation of Arsenic & Old Lace. There’s a murder or two, an aging star who’s laying pipe all over town, including a mother and daughter team…. This time Max is a suspect (it’s usually Annie), so Annie has to prove his innocence. ( )

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