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Tanya Davis is a young, African American Pequod student who meets Rhe in Death in a Red Canvas Chair, during Rhe’s on campus search for students who might know the dead girl in the red canvas chair. When she finds Tanya, she sees a young woman over six feet tall, toned but not muscular, and clad in the typical college uniform of frayed jeans and a T shirt. Hers said “GEEK is the new sexy” in blazing red letters. She is just this side of attractive, with a broad face and even features and long, straightened hair pulled back from her face with a red head band. There is a little acne on her chin. Tanya is indeed on scholarship but not for sports. She is studying math and physics and is one of only seven black women in her class. Tanya is beaten by her boyfriend and ends up at Sturdevant Hospital, where Rhe meets Tanya’s grandfather and begins the investigation of the boyfriend. I can’t tell you more without giving away a plot line! Tanya is such a great character that I brought her back for a brief encore appearance in Death by Pumpkin, where she is now student body president and helps Rhe during Sam’s recall election. Can you see Tanya? Tell me what you see! 0 0

Ah, Sam, the Chief of Police for Pequod, brother-in-law to Rhe. Sam and Rhe are close, especially after Rhe becomes involved investigating crimes. They complement each other – Rhe impulsive and quick, Sam more patient and procedure-oriented. Their relationship grows during Death in a Dacron Sail and Death by Pumpkin, and more I will not say! According to Rhe, Sam Brewster is, next to her husband, one of the greatest guys in the world, but he does have some peculiarities. He’d wanted to be a cowboy from an early age, hence the country western music on the police line and an attempted western accent from time to time.  He also wears a cowboy hat, a string tie, and drives an open Jeep, better suited for a Texas range than a New England town. Sam is taller (6’4”) than his brother Will, with fair hair but mostly bald on top, and struggles with his weight. Like Will, he wears glasses for reading but doesn’t want anyone to know. He butts heads with Will over the hiring of Rhe as a police consultant in Death in a Red Canvas Chair. In Death by Pumpkin, Sam finally listens to Rhe and starts to work out and watches his food. “I knew he had to be working out because his growing paunch had disappeared, his round face had thinned, and his biceps now stretched the tan uniform shirt he was wearing. Plus he had grown a mustache and beard. I couldn’t decide if I liked it, but it was neatly kept and added some gravitas to his appearance.” It turns out Sam has a personal trainer, Wendy Reynolds, who is an aggressive flirt with her hooks out for Sam. I tried not to make her too much of a caricature. Sam has always been secretly jealous of his brother’s choice of wife, and I hope the reader senses that in his heart of hearts he loves Rhe dearly. Do you have a picture of Sam in your mind’s eye? Care to share? 0 0

Ruthie is another character I had so much fun creating. She is named after a high school classmate of mine and resembles her in some ways. Ruth Anne Hersh had been the hub for the police station since Rhe was a little girl and knew everything there was to know about each and every one of the members of the police force and their families. Part receptionist, part secretary, and full-time referee, she sits at a tall front desk in the reception area. If she stands behind the desk, about all one can see is the top of her bun. She is what Rhe’s mother likes to call an ample woman, with graying hair still showing some of the original bright red, freckles covering her face, and a hearty laugh. Ruthie maintains order. In Death in a Red Canvas Chair: “The station was filled with people when I arrived, and Ruthie had obviously been called in to man the desk. She gave me a desperate look as I walked by her.  I could hear her patiently but forcefully explaining to three lawyers at the same time that they could meet with their clients once an interview room became available.” Sometime later: “Ruthie was glowering, and the lawyers were sitting in chairs, texting on their phones, talking quietly with the person sitting in the adjacent chair, or intently reading something. I could see some out in the parking lot, talking on their phones. Ruthie had restored order, it was clear.” In Death by Pumpkin, I describe her as follows: …fire-hydrant-sized receptionist who had been a fixture at the station for more years than I could count, sat at the oversized front desk with a scowl that could freeze water.” Ruthie does something unexpected: “’Don’t you just love the color? It’s just what my hair looked like when I was a teenager.’ Yeah, if you were a 65-year-old Madagascar macaw. ‘It’s a nice shade of red, but I may need some time to get used to it,’ I said, waffling between an outright lie and honesty.” Do you have a picture in mind? Show me! 0 0

There is no Q, so what could I do? I decided to tell you about Phil Pearce. He appears first in Death in a Red Canvas Chair, where I describe him as thin as a stick with hair that looks like it was cut with nail scissors. His perfectly round face is dominated by a ski slope of a nose, with a bulbous end.  Rhe thinks he is the homeliest man she’s ever seen, but comments that when his smile lights up his face, he is almost winsome. He has problems keeping his uniform hat above his ears, but between those ears is a sharp mind that he uses to keep up with the latest forensic and police procedures. Phil is an investigator, smart and intuitive, and also a computer whiz, much better at searching the web than Rhe, so the police department and Rhe depend on him to come up with answers. He sniffs out shell corporations in the first book, searches for missing children in the second, and in Death by Pumpkin, he creates a program to allow him to search for faces in crowd pictures taken by dozens of different cameras. Phil is an essential part of any investigation. Do you have a mental image of him? I do, but I won’t tell you which actor I’m thinking of. 0 0

Paulette is Rhe’s best friend, her sounding board, and a willing participant in many of Rhe’s sleuthing trips. She’s bubbly, fashion-savy, and the quintessential homemaker. Paulette lives just down the street from Rhe, her son Tyler is Jack’s best friend, and she is, according to Rhe, Pequod’s answer to Paula Deen or Rachael Ray or Giada De Laurentiis. Food is always on the table in her kitchen and Rhe fights the calories while enjoying her creations. Paulette is vertically challenged – her hugs are always around Rhe’s waist – and blonde. She was in theater in college, and her acting ability has her volunteering to play a potential escort in Death in a Red Canvas Chair.  Her children, Tyler and 12-year-old Sarah, become active characters in Death in a Dacron Sail and Death by Pumpkin. Her support of Rhe through several traumas and her inside knowledge of Rhe’s marriage and relationship with Sam, her brother-in-law, allow me to explore the more emotional side of Rhe. You should have a good image of her – what do you think she looks like? and Death By Pumpkin, coming in May 0 0

Tom O’Neil, sail maker of Pequod, is based on a real person I had the honor of interviewing during a visit of Boothbay Harbor, Maine: Nathanial Wilson, possibly the premier sail maker in the United States, who patiently took time out of his day to give me a tour of his loft and talk about his craft. Tom had been blond and tall when he was younger; now he is still tall and lanky but with a shock of white hair. In Death in a Dacron Sail, Rhe visits Tom at his loft, recalling she had a crush on him when she was a teenager and spent a lot of time in his loft while the sails were being made for her boat, the Glass Trinket. Sail makers who work by hand leave their signature on each sail, and Tom recognizes the one in which a young girl’s body had been wrapped as one of his. “I recognize that stitching. Corner patch at the tack. Guess you did, too. Headsail, dacron, old.” “Head sail?” I asked. “It’s the smaller sail on a fractional rig sloop, bet you haven’t seen one. Forestay doesn’t run to the top of the mast and the main sail does most of the work.” Tom O’Neil is a great character, and I hope I can bring him back in a later book. How do you envision Tom? Here is a picture of Nat Wilson: 0 0

In Death in a Dacron Sail, Mary Noonan becomes a private patient of Rhe’s, when Rhe is put on unpaid leave from the hospital following her beating by a patient.  Mary is a grandmotherly type, chipper, bright, and energetic, capable of doing many things for herself, but she’s become forgetful lately and isn’t eating. She is quintessentially Irish, with apple-pink cheeks and a round face, and speaks with a brogue. She also likes to cook and tantalizes Rhe with her soda bread and biscuits. Mary also provides Rhe with a pivotal clue, which leads to her discovery of what happened to her childhood friend Deirdre, who disappeared when Rhe was eleven. I loved creating this character – how do you see her? 0 0

Dr. James Manning is the CEO of Sturdevant Hospital.  He first appears in Death in a Red Canvas Chair, as a patron of East Almorel, the high end brothel with Pequod undergraduates as escorts. He isn’t there the night of the raid, so he escapes prosecution. He is also involved, although he denies it, in the acceptance of unlicensed tissue (from a funeral home) for the new transplant division of the hospital. That unit is closed as a result, and the MD he recruited to lead it has to resign. Thus he has a real ax to grind with Rhe, who was instrument in exposing both of these activities. In Death in a Dacron Sail, he is described more fully.  He is a surgeon, resides in very plush offices in the hospital, and because of his red hair and his habit of bobbing his head while talking, is called Woody (and another worse nickname) by the hospital staff. In this book, he is blackmailing the head of HR, Sylvia Hutty, and also removes security staff from the ER as a way of possibly striking back at Rhe. It works – she is beaten by a patient. In Death by Pumpkin, he plays a very minor role, but he hasn’t yet been removed as CEO of the hospital because the board is loaded with his personal friends. You can expect him to be back in my fourth book, Death in a Mudflat. Red hair? Who can you see as James Manning? The real life James Manning is a friend of mine. One of the students in the first anatomy class I taught at UNC’s School of Medicine, Jim is now a Professor of Emergency Medicine and a fine physician and does not have red hair! 0 0

Lyle Pendergrass is the guard at the rear (employees parking lot) entrance of Sturdevant Hospital. He sits at a station behind a Plexiglas wall separating his desk from the corridor.  Rhe thinks he’d been there since before the hospital was constructed and had a suspicion that they’d just built it around him. He probably couldn’t defend the hospital from a cat invasion, but he knew every employee and delivery person and checked Ids. Lyle is one of those minor characters that occasionally pops to life, such as when he fends off an aggressive reporter following Rhe in Death in a Red Canvas Chair and when he provides critical information about the lack of security in the Emergency Room in Death in a Dacron Sail. He’s a loveable and rickety old duck and I’m sure I’ll have him back in future books. What do you think he looks like? Anyone come to mind? 0 0

Dear Readers, Thank you for your votes! We have plenty of feedback and are ready to choose a winner. If you voted for the winning cover, you may be randomly selected to receive a copy of “Death By Pumpkin” signed by the author*. Stay tuned for more updates and information about the upcoming cover reveal and as always, thank you for visiting! *Subject to change. Only email addresses submitted through the poll site will be considered for the prize. Please do not post your email or mailing address in the blog (site) comments below. 0 0