Dark Deeds

Dark Deeds – The third book in the Deann Dark series, written by Blaine DeLano and featuring ex-police detective Deann Dark, now a private investigator. The main murder was done by poisoning, in an edgy, popular club, a crowded dance club. The murderer added cyanide to a pomtini (martini flavored with pomegranate). The victim was a minor celebrity, the girlfriend of a trash rock musician, a bad girl, wild child, living on the edge, and often over it. She used people as freely and carelessly as she used illegals.

Eve summed up the story as: ex-girlfriend of a trash rocker, edgy lifestyle, mid-twenties, lots of illegals and easy sex, poisoned in a high-end sex club pretending to be a dance club - cyanide in some fancy martini. The killer was an obsessed fan of the rocker, female, same age group. Rumor was the vic and the rocker might be getting back together. Rocker was out of rehab, clean and obsessed fan killed his ex to protect him from her. The victim made her living charging for interviews, taking kickbacks from clubs, selling data to gossip reporters and blogs, and brokering illegals, which she also consumed.

Roarke added that the only reason Dark took the case was because the victim’s mother, a friend of a friend’s mother, came to her and pleaded with her. The victim’s painted as careless, selfish, even a bit vicious, but the mother never gave up on her.

In the book, Bliss Cather died with spiky hair of the palest blond tipped with black, plenty of piercings, including an eyebrow bar, a lot of tattoos, and heavy makeup. The killer was 5 feet, 6 inches, white, with red hair with blue side dreads and a tattoo of an orange dragon on the inside of her right wrist. An early scene had a public fight at the club/crime scene, with Cather trashed and the rocker half-trashed. They had ugly words, threats on both sides, a public fight reported on gossip channels, with video.

The murder took place on a different night in the same club, with many of the same characters. Cather was trashed and bad-mouthing the rocker ex, who sat in another section pretending to ignore her. Cather hit the dance floor, as did the rocker ex. Cather rubbed suggestively against several available men and a couple of women, all while watching the ex. They danced together, simulating sex. Cather went back to her table, popped a little Erotica, bragged that she would have the ex in a privacy room, and she could lead him by the cock wherever she wanted him. She then picked up the fresh, blood-hued martini, took a couple of big gulps, continuing to brag, with lots of laughing from her little group of sycophants. She was having trouble breathing, drank more, then started to lose consciousness to gales of laughter. There were screams and moans as she vomited, with the ex trying to push through the crowd to get to her. There were seizures and her skin turned cherry-red amid chaos and confusion. A figure in the back observed and then slipped out of the club unnoticed.

Having the ex-lover present at the murder scene, making him part of the death, triggered emotions in him. Seeing her die shattered him, pushed him into grief and depression. Rather than giving the killer what she wanted - his attention and love - it built a wall around him. Instead of weaning him off illegals, he used them to block the grief and missed recording sessions and canceled a swath of tour dates.

Despite Eve’s warning, Loxie Flash died that way in Dark in Death, belatedly realizing her fate when it was too late to change it.

The killer was Gigi Hombly in the book. Ann Elizabeth Smith had three candidates for Bliss Cather, and disliked Loxie the most, so it was satisfying to have her come into the club, as she’d hoped. She had initially planned for more time and research but had to write Eve in to add an element of cat-and-mouse. When Adam Glazier came in, she felt like it was a sign, a bonus, and the chase was unexpected and exhilarating.

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