“If you tell me I’m sensible in addition to normal and wise, I’m going to punch you in the stomach. I’m as screwed up as the next person, and I like it that way.” - Eve Dallas to Peabody, Imitation in Death[1]
Plot Summary[]
Summer, 2059. A man wearing a cape and a top hat approaches a prostitute on a dark, New York City street. Minutes later, the woman is dead. Left at the scene is a letter addressed to Lieutenant Eve Dallas, inviting her to play his game and unveil his identity. He signs it, “Jack.”
Now Dallas is in pursuit of a murderer who knows as much about the history of serial killers as she does. He has studied the most notorious and the most vicious slayings in modern times. But he also wants to make his own mark. He has chosen his victim: Eve Dallas. And all Eve knows is that he plans to mimic the most infamous murderers of all - starting with Jack the Ripper...
--Penguin Group
Map[]
Please reference the Imitation in Death Map for locations or approximate locations of sites listed here.
Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode. |
Timeline[]
Story Dates: September 4-12, 2059* *Days are based on the BBQ being on a Sunday, but otherwise don’t make sense.
Day One – Friday, September 4, 2059[]
Prologue[]
- Jacie Wooten is murdered and a note is left for Eve from “Jack.”
Chapter 1[]
- Eve Dallas and Delia Peabody visit Jacie’s apartment and find it neat and clean.
- Eve and Peabody visit Jacie’s counselor.
Chapter 2[]
- Eve goes to the morgue to see ME Morris and has Peabody check out purchasers of the paper type of the note left for Eve at crime scene.
- Eve visits Dr. Charlotte Mira to get her profile of murderer. Mira invites Eve and Roarke over to a barbecue at her home that weekend.
- Peabody creates a list of paper purchasers; Eve and Peabody plan to visit the purchasers.
Chapter 3[]
- Eve and Peabody begin their interviews with Leo Fortney.
- After leaving Fortney, Eve and Peabody visit Pepper Franklin, Leo’s cohabitation partner, who confirms Leo’s story.
Chapter 4[]
- When Eve gets home for the evening, Roarke tells her that he “banged" [Eve’s word] Pepper and that he knows or knows of all her suspects.
Day Two – Saturday, September 5, 2059[]
- Nadine Furst brings doughnuts to Cop Central to bribe Eve into giving her a storyline. Nadine agrees that Quinton Post will be given Eve’s statements to keep them both free of questioning due to their friendship,
- Eve and Peabody visit the home of Carmichael Smith, who asks Eve if he should call her Mrs. Roarke. Smith is overwrought with images of negativity, and listens to his own music to create a positive flow in his home. Eve tells Peabody after they leave that he likes to have multiple sex partners, even with minors,
Chapter 5[]
- Eve and Peabody go to the UN to interview one purchaser (Niles Renquist), who seems amused that he is being questioned. Peabody is concerned that he doesn’t have a strong alibi for the murder time,
- Eve and Peabody visit Elliot Hawthorne at the Country Club, who was golfing at the time. They speak with Darla Hawthorne, who is taking tennis lessons, and verifies that she and “Sweetie” were in home in bed,
Chapter 6[]
- Roarke meets with Moira O’Bannion at his office to thank her for telling him about his mother, and she gives him the picture of Roarke with his mother when he was a baby.
- Eve and Roarke go to dinner in Philadelphia, where she runs into Charles Monroe, who verifies that he knew of Jacie, but no one really knew her well,
Day Three – Sunday, September 6, 2059[]
- Eve and Roarke attend a barbecue at Mira’s house.
- Dr. Mira’s daughter, Gillian, tells Eve that she was jealous of Eve’s relationship with Dr. Mira as Mira loves Eve and considers her a daughter of her heart and spirit. Gillian says she was prepared to dislike Eve on sight but couldn’t pull it off.
- While there, Eve gets called to a crime scene for Victim 2.
Chapter 7[]
- This time it is a Boston Strangler copycat murder of Lois Gregg.
- The crime scene is Lois Gregg’s apartment, and Eve and Peabody search through the home.
- Eve interviews Lois’s son, Jeffrey, who tells her that he came over to get his mother because he was upset at his mother for being late to dinner.
- David Baxter is on scene and Eve has Baxter and his partner, Troy Trueheart, canvas the neighborhood for potential witnesses.
- Eve takes the subway home and gets into an altercation between a man who was whacking off and another man who was trying to beat him up for doing it in public.
Chapter 8[]
- Peabody is running through sims with McNab to prepare for the detective exam.
- Eve falls asleep in her home office, and has a cognizant dream of her mother, Stella.
Day Four – Monday, September 7, 2059[]
Chapter 9[]
- Thomas Breen’s name has come up as an author who has studied serial killers. Eve and Peabody go into the Village to interview him. Breen doesn’t hide his excitement at being considered a suspect. Breen acknowledges that he had been sent the same stationery that the murderer used by a fan.
- Eve and Peabody go back to Fortney to play good cop/bad cop. Fortney hits on Peabody while she’s being the good cop, asking her out to dinner. Fortney begins changing his story about the night of Wooten’s murder, saying he was home alone and he and Pepper are just friends now.
- Eve and Peabody go see Pamela Renquist at her home. Pamela is adamant about her husband’s whereabouts on the night of the murders and is inconvenienced by Eve’s interruption to her home.
Chapter 10[]
- Eve and Peabody go to Jeffrey and Leah Gregg’s apartment to speak with Leah, who remembers that Lois had helped a young man named “Al.” in the produce department. At the produce store, the owner confirms that Lois had helped Al pick out produce and “Al” carried her bags out for her. At the boutique where Lois worked, the clerks confirmed that a man had come in to thank her for helping him choose a gift for his wife. Eve determines that “Al” had been stalking Lois.
- Baxter calls Eve to tell her that he found a potential witness.
Chapter 11[]
- The witness confirms that the man she saw was carrying a fruit basket and wearing a handyman’s outfit.
- Eve meets with Mira to update her and get an updated profile.
- Eve meets with Commander Whitney, where Eve confirms that she has given a statement to Quinton Post, not Nadine. Whitney informs Eve that complaints have been filed against her by both Leo Fortney and Niles Renquist, on behalf of his wife.
Chapter 12[]
- At home, Roarke runs suspect lists on his unregistered computer.
Day Five – Tuesday, September 8, 2059[]
Chapter 13[]
- Eve starts the day in her home office, and Feeney drops by to pick up some files.
- While still at home, Pepper Franklin comes to the house to tell her that Leo felt threatened and hounded, but she was just telling her out of courtesy as a “woman to woman thing.” Pepper questions Eve’s motives about Leo, wondering if it was because Pepper had an intimate relationship with Roarke. Eve tells Pepper that she was one of many, but that she was “The Only.”
- Peabody meets Eve at home, where they leave to visit Carmichael Smith again. Eve asks Carmichael if he pays his mother to keep quiet about his abusive childhood. Carmichael breaks a glass in his hands and asks them to leave.
Chapter 14[]
- Mavis meets Eve and Peabody at Julietta Gates’s office, using Mavis Freestone’s fashion connection (Leonardo) to get an interview with Julietta. Eve’s impression is that Julietta likes to run the show and that Tom is a devoted father. Eve picks up that Julietta is having an affair based on a phone call received on her private ’link. Eve has Baxter trail Julietta to get info on the affair.
- Whitney gets Eve on the ’link to tell her to go visit Renquist again, so she can officially apologize on behalf of the NYPSD.
Chapter 15[]
- Renquist makes her wait for 20 minutes, but then she apologizes and grovels.
- Feeney relays information to Eve about previous (practice??) murders: Paris, London (both Jack the Ripper) and Boston and New L.A. (both Boston Strangler).
- Baxter informs Eve that Julietta’s love interest is a woman named Serena Unger.
Chapter 16[]
- Eve and Roarke travel to Boston where they interview Roberta Gable, Niles Renquist’s former nanny. Roberta confirms that she still receives flowers on her birthday and Christmas cards from Niles, and that she taught him obedience, respect and to be well disciplined. She indicates that Niles’ sister’s dog ran away and that she was very “accident prone” until Niles moved away to attend Eton.
- While in Boston, Eve visits with DS Haggerty, where they exchange notes on their similar cases.
- Eve and Roarke head to New L.A. where Eve meets Detectives Sloan and Baker, who give her the address of the crime scene.
Day Six – Wednesday, September 9, 2059[]
Chapter 17[]
- Ted Bundy copycat murder attempt on Marlene Cox. Marlene manages to escape by spraying mugger spray in his eyes and setting off her panic button.
- Eve gives Nadine a tip: wants to know why this guy has so little imagination that he has to pretend he's someone else? With the last one, he flubbed it up so bad that a girl hurts him and he has to run away? Also, that Eve has a good idea as to the identity of the murderer.
Chapter 18[]
- Eve and Peabody go to interview Serena Unger, who admits to having an intimate relationship with Julietta Breen. She said she loves Julietta but won’t destroy the family Julietta has with Tom because of the child.
- Eve and Peabody go to the hospital, where Marlene’s mother, Sela Cox, tells her that Eve will find the attacker.
- Eve and Peabody interview Sophia DiCarlo, the Renquists' nanny, who confirms that Niles sexually assaults her at night, that she is not ever allowed in his office, and that he was seen coming home at 9:30 am on the morning of September 2.
Chapter 19[]
- Eve discovers that Niles Renquist has left on a business trip.
- Eve brings Thomas Breen in for a formal interview. He finally asks for his lawyer because Eve keeps asking him about his wife’s lesbian affair. Eve postpones the questioning until the attorney can be present.
- Pepper shows up at Central asking Eve to press charges against Leo because after she found out he was having an affair, Leo hit her, causing a black eye.
- Eve tells Peabody to go home, relax and get ready to kick Detective Exam Butt in the morning.
Chapter 20[]
- At home, Eve tells Roarke about the Stella dream.
- Sela Cox calls Eve’s ’link to tell her that Marlene has woken up.
Chapter 21[]
- At the hospital, Eve shows Marlene photos of the suspects, and Marlene identifies Niles Renquist as her attacker.
- Eve calls Whitney at home and convinces him to get her a search warrant for the Renquist home
- Eve conducts search of Renquist home, with Pamela Renquist being arrested for assaulting a police officer (hitting Eve).
- In Niles’s home office, Eve finds the following: Thomas Breen book on serial killers, surgical tools, costumes and disguises (wigs, black cape, handyman garb, plaster), Lois Gregg’s missing ring, container labeled “Whore” with parts of Jacie Wooten in it, information on the next intended victim, and information on Eve.
Chapter 22[]
- Eve informs the next intended victim (Katie Mitchell) of Renquist’s plan to murder her, and Katie agrees to let NYPSD use her apartment as a stakeout to capture Renquist. Renquist does not come that night.
Day Seven – Thursday, September 10, 2059[]
- During the day, at her home office, the team tightens up the security on Mitchell’s apartment.
- Plan: Peabody will be the decoy, while Eve will be hiding in the closet.
- At Central, Eve meets with Pamela Renquist, who is still in denial about her husband. Eve informs Pamela that her daughter has been taken into protective custody.
Chapter 23[]
- That evening at the Mitchell apartment, Renquist approaches after having a nice dinner and bypasses the security at Mitchell’s door. He approaches Mitchell’s bed, touches Peabody’s back, and Eve calls for the lights on, throws her shoulder into his gut, knees him in the groin, and then punches him in the jaw (which was for Marley (Marlene)).
- Eve tells Peabody to read Renquist his rights, and have him transported back to Central. Then she says to Peabody, “I think you’ll be able to handle him, Detective.” Peabody then tries to bear hug Eve, jumps mid air on Ian McNab, and Eve tells McNab to take her home to celebrate, that they can handle Renquist.
Day Nine – Saturday, September 12, 2059[]
- Renquist’s attorneys will try for a plea of insanity, citing Multiple Personality Disorder (now called Dissociative Identity Disorder). Mira doesn’t buy it and will contest the plea. Renquist may end up in a padded cell on the mentally defective floor rather than in a cement cage.
- Eve is dressed in her uniform ready to go to Peabody’s Detective ceremony. Roarke is shocked when he first sees Eve in her dress uniform, as he has never seen “his cop” in uniform before. He tells her she looks amazing and sexy and that she’s got to wear her uniform home so they can play cops and robbers later.
- After the ceremony and back at Central, Eve tells Peabody that she is no longer her aide, that as a detective she will need a new assignment. Peabody is upset by this news and asks if she can continue as Eve’s aide. Eve tells Peabody that she doesn’t need “a damn aide” but she could use a partner. Peabody responds that this is the best day of her life and that she will make Eve a hell of a partner.
Character List[]
List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book[]
List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book[]
- David Baxter
- Ryan Feeney
- Mavis Freestone
- Nadine Furst
- Galahad
- Leonardo
- Ian McNab
- Charlotte Mira
- Morris
- Delia Peabody
- Lawrence Summerset
- Troy Trueheart
- Jack Whitney
List of Recurring Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]
List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book[]
- Addy
- Detective Baker
- Thomas Breen
- Jed Breen
- Bryce
- Piers Chan
- Marlene Cox
- Sela Cox
- Officer Cullin
- Sophia DiCarlo
- Leo Fortney
- Pepper Franklin
- Officer Frohickie
- Roberta Janet Gable
- Julietta Gates
- Gillian
- Jeffrey Gregg
- Leah Gregg
- DS Haggerty
- Hank
- Darla Hawthorne
- Elliot Hawthorne
- Officer Henley
- Lana
- Dr. Laurence
- Li
- Katie Mitchell
- Myra
- Thomas Newkirk
- Moira O’Bannion
- Tressa Palank
- Elsa Parksy
- Niles Renquist
- Pamela Elizabeth (Dysert) Renquist
- Rose Renquist
- Detective Sloan
- Carmichael Smith
- Stevens
- Suelee
- Serena Unger
- Rico Vincenti
- Peter Waterman
- Jacie Wooten
List of Peripheral Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]
- Peter Brent
- Callie
- Dora
- Angela Dysert
- Marshall Evans
- Lois Gregg
- Liva Holdreak
- Rachel Howard
- Ms. Hubble
- Ivan the Butcher
- Chef Jourard
- Leroy
- Lisel
- Susie Mannery
- Enrico Marsonini
- Mizzy
- Fred Parksy
- Quinton Post
- Lord Renquist
- Mr. or Ms. Risling
- Mr. or Ms. Risling
- Sam
- Sarah
- Suzanne Smith
- Snowdrop (cat)
- Stella
- Gerald Stevenson
- Tony
- Trent
- Richard Troy
- Willy the Wanker
- Judge Womack
Deaths[]
Victim | Cause of Death | Weapon | Perpetrator |
---|---|---|---|
Jacie Wooten | slit throat, massive blood loss (killed in the style of Jack the Ripper) | scalpel | Niles Renquist |
Lois Gregg | sexually assaulted & strangled (killed in the style of Boston Strangler) | robe sash/belt |
Trivia[]
- Peabody receives her gold detective shield (Detective Third Grade).
- Eve appears for the first time (in the in Death stories) in full uniform.
- Roarke buys the Boston Celtics.
Other Covers[]
US neon cover | UK edition cover | German 1st edition cover | German Book Club edition cover | Japanese edition cover | |
US neon cover | UK edition cover | German 1st edition cover | German Book Club edition cover | Japanese edition cover | Brilliance Audio: unabridged |
YANNIs[]
- The unrecycled stationery:
- Although Pepper Franklin’s name was on the list of customers[2], Eve told Leo Fortney his name came up since he “bought stationery in London several months ago.”[3]
- Leonardo and Mavis’s relationship:
- Gillian’s offspring:
- Leah Gregg’s offspring:
- In the audio version, Susan Ericksen called Julietta Gates “Julietta Glass.”
Footnotes[]
- ↑ Imitation in Death, Chapter 5
- ↑ Imitation in Death, Chapter 2
- ↑ Imitation in Death, Chapter 3
- ↑ Imitation in Death (ISBN 0-425-19158-3), p. 81
- ↑ Born in Death (ISBN 978-0-425-21568-5), pp. 328-330
- ↑ Imitation in Death (ISBN 0-425-19158-3), pp. 87-88
- ↑ Imitation in Death, Chapter 7
- ↑ Imitation in Death, Chapter 10