Larinda Mars

Mars, Larinda née Lari Jane Mercury

Appeared in Glory in Death (c. May 3-June 3, 2058), is killed in Secrets in Death (mid-February, 2061), and is mentioned in Connections in Death (March, 2061)

Personal Information

• Description: The woman was so perfect, Dallas might have been tempted to check for a pulse.
• Complexion: Alabaster
• Hair: Gold-tipped bronze
• Eyes: Emerald
• Address: 265 Park Avenue, Penthouse 3
• Relationships: Dr. James Mercury (father); Marilee Mercury (mother); Clara (sister, 37); unnamed brother-in-law; unnamed nephew; unnamed niece; unnamed maternal aunt; Larinda (maternal grandmother/deceased); unnamed maternal grandfather (deceased)
• Occupation: Social Information reporter at Channel 75 (gossip)
• Aliases: Lorilie Saturn, Linda Venus, Angela Terra

Description

• Her face could have been carved from alabaster, her eyes painted with liquid emerald, her lips with crushed ruby. She had a staggering (eerily beautiful) face and incredible two-layer, two-toned (gold-tipped) lashes.
• Her voice was trained to a (melodious) throaty purr that transmitted competent sex and she offered Dallas a perfect, long-fingered hand with tapered scarlet tips. She had a dazzling white-toothed smile and her voice held the faintest whiff of upper-class Brit.
  • (Though, at one point, her voice lost some of its sophistication and whispered unmistakably of Queens.)
• She has gorgeous, curvy shoulders and wears some classy perfume; her body was every bit as impressive as her face.

Personality

• An expert on button pushing.

Homicide Information

• Murdered at Du Vin - cut to her brachial artery in her right arm.

Interesting Facts

• On-air talents were often known to leverage their first three years’ salaries against cosmetic enhancements. Eve figured that unless Larinda had been born very lucky, she’d bet the first five.
• She offered to help Eve find Morse if Eve would get her an invitation to Roarke’s “soiree.”
• She considers Morse a “puss ball” and said that he’d been trying to undermine Nadine.
• During the party that evening, Eve told Roarke that Mars had a recorder in her bag, and he let her know that she did, but now he had it, after letting her crowd him at the vegetarian table.
• The tagline of her morning show, Who’s Doing What, was “all the dish, served with a silver spoon.” Peabody piously said she didn’t watch that sort of thing, but “you just hear things.”
• She played Killer Bees on her bedside tablet; McNab called it a tight game
• Mira thought she might have had a touch of the sensitive, based on how well she read people; Eve and Roarke had already come to that conclusion.
• She interned on Behind the Stars when she first came to New York out of college, according to her bio, which also showed her parents as having died tragically when she was eighteen, no siblings, nomadic childhood, homeschooled until college, no other family ties, no cohabs.
• Her wealthy maternal grandmother, for whom she was named, left her about five million dollars, triple that with the sale of her house and the stuff she collected. She was a socialite and would feed gossip to Mars and bring her with her to parties and events. She drowned in her backyard pool when Mars was nineteen. Mars used the money to reinvent herself and sever all ties with her family.