Index
Site Map
Contact
About
Books
Links
|
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS (In approximate order of appearance):
Daniel Maefield: Brutally murdered in his church study. In flashbacks, his widow remembers this sixty-two-year-old Presbyterian pastor and part time Columbia University professor, thus, disclosing how his controversial ways and ideas had left him with many enemies.
Ronda Maefield: A refugee from Nazi Germany and student at Barnard College (Columbia University campus) in 1939, she marries Daniel Maefield, nineteen years her senior. Following his 1962 murder, she moves into a plush apartment in Manhattan's Morningside Heights and begins a new life as a recently graduated lawyer.
Jerry Flynn: Five months after his predecessor's murder, he arrives in the farming community of Tompkinsville, New Jersey to take over as pastor of prestigious, conflicted First Presbyterian Church. Young, handsome, and personable, he is however, unprepared for events that challenge his courage and question his rightness for seeking clerical office. The Widow's Paramour revolves around his first eight days on the job and two other dates that the same year.
Madge (as in 'badge') Todd: Oldest daughter of Walter Tompkins. Nine years married to her high school sweetheart, Michael, she has combined motherhood with a career as partner with her husband in T & T Produce Company. But her marriage is strained. Complicating her emotional well-being are recent sexual indiscretions, and her romantic attraction to Jerry Flynn.
Walter Tompkins: Aging millionaire, farm and cannery factory owner, lay leader at First Church, he is a man who takes pride in his Scottish and American Revolutionary War roots, and will go to any length to defend his family from public embarrassment.
Everett Wheeler: An obvious racist and alcoholic, he is also custodian at First Church where he knows no personal boundaries in his utilization of church buildings, or his authority over those who use them, including the new minister.
Charlene Cunningham: As a private detective, working undercover as a freelance-writer, she investigates the murder of Daniel Maefield on behalf of the law firm representing the company that insured Maefield's life for a million dollars. She is young, pretty and persistent. As heroine of the story, she is tracking Ronda Maefield and learns the unsavory truth about her present and past.
Roberto Ramous: A man on the run from the law, he masquerades as a Mexican migrant worker and comes to Tompkinsville to pick the June strawberry fields, and to settle a score with a "gringo" who owes him money.
Michael Todd: As president of T & T Produce, he faces an uncertain business future brought on by mishandling farm labor unrest and emotional instability. But, Walter Tompkins, having no sons, treats Todd as his heir and trusts his wisdom more than that of his daughter, Michael's wife, Madge.
John Burroughs: Chief of Homicide with the Tompkinsville Police Department. Recognized as a thorough criminal investigator, he uses painstaking techniques and suspect background checks to solve murders and get convictions. Baffled by the savagery of Reverend Maefield's murder, he overlooks clues that could have nailed the probable murderer early in the investigation.
Sarah Draper: Owner and manager of an Atlantic City catering hall, and ex fashion model, she is in her third marriage. Her wild life style and perverted affairs provoke rage in her lovers that bring disastrous consequences.
Frank Scarpelli: Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in a town adjoining Tompkinsville, Reverend Scarpelli has interim charge of the cathedral church. A friend of the late Daniel Maefield, Scarpelli reveals new information about the dead minister's emotional state to Jerry Flynn.
Margo Rasmeyer: She works as a cocktail waitress at an Atlantic City cabaret. Young, seductive and looking for easy cash, she models in the hidden studio. When the photographer fails to give her the attention she craves, she threatens to tell the police about his "trashy business," and where he conducts it.
Chester Walsh: The first "man of color" to reach detective grade on the Tompkinsville Police Force. When his partner and boss, John Burroughs, is suddenly missing after a late night duty call, Walsh takes over as chief inspector in the murder of Reverend Maefield.
Marie Wheeler: Physically and mentally abused by her husband, Everett, Marie looks for an opportunity to force a profitable divorce. When she discovers photos detailing his infidelity, she has what she needs to blackmail him. But realizing that the photos would cause irrefutable harm to "good" people, she plans another way to bring Everett down. |
|
