Murder for Hire: The Synopsis

Connie Garrett has a lot on her plate. Her mystery-oriented theatrical troupe, Murder for Hire, has been hired as entertainment for Emerald Cove’s first annual Fall Festival, a series of events held to honor local authors and raise money for the newly opened Emerald Cove Library. 

This year’s Festival post mortem honoree is Shay Randell, creator of the famous hard-boiled detective Mick O’Mallet. The publicity generated for the Festival is better than previous years because a new television series featuring O’Mallet is now in the works. The publicity from the Festival could be invaluable to Murder for Hire. One of the actors, Connie’s boyfriend Grant, is even being considered for the role of O’Mallet in the new series.

Connie has her best friend and business partner, Daphne, to share the burden of coordinating the Festival entertainment.  But even Daphne can’t help Connie untangle the problems of her relationship with Grant, who is devastatingly handsome, charming...and a total control freak. Connie knows she needs to end things with Grant, but doesn’t want to risk losing one of MFH’s actors before the Festival is over.  Adding to Connie’s turmoil is an intense attraction between her and Alex, the newest addition to Murder for Hire.

As Connie struggles to get a handle on her personal and professional life, the body of Damien Duran, a member of the Festival Board, is found on the beach near the library.  The official verdict: accidental drowning. But then the corpse of Lucille Monroe, head of the Festival’s Charity Banquet, is discovered during one of Murder for Hire’s shows, and Connie and Daphne get more publicity than they bargained for. Not only is the verdict murder, but one committed in the same way as homicides in one of Shay Randell’s novels.

Unlike Damien Duran, Lucille was a thoroughly unpleasant person.  She had also once been Randell’s mistress and thought it would be great publicity to have the lurid love letters he’d written her during their affair, put on public display. Lucille had succeeded in alienating most everyone involved with the Festival, including Connie and Daphne, so there are no lack of suspects.

Among those under suspicion are: Franklin Grace, a fervent Randell scholar who would do anything to keep the memory of his idol from being tarnished; Andy Stewart, head librarian and instigator of the Fall Festival, whom Lucille had given every reason to regret his decision to hire her; and Jonathan Burke, famous writer and Randell expert, honored guest speaker, complete jerk, and Lucille’s latest lover.

As the body count continues to rise, Connie and Daphne are faced with the very real possibility that, along with Franklin, Andy, and Burke, any one of their troupe might be the cold-blooded murderer, including Alex.  A stuntman by profession, Alex had met Lucille several years earlier when he worked for her then-husband, a sleazy film producer.

Connie finds herself pulled into the investigation by her landlady and an irresponsible reporter, despite the fact that she can’t, by her own admission, deduce her way out of her own living room.  Her unwilling involvement becomes necessary in order to prove her own innocence, as well as that of her friends and co-workers. So Connie must now juggle the show, two men, and a murder investigation, as well as prevent herself from meeting the same fate as the previous victims when her sleuthing leads her to a climactic confrontation with the killer.

(Back to The Goods...)

 

© Dana Fredsti 2008