Finally Finished! Dead on Demand is Done!

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OK, from the last time I posted, no one else was killed. So I think the body count was at 6, and Edwin’s small world started closing in on him as the connections through the darknet were followed, and there were little trails of evidence all over the place, someone just needed to look for it. So Ed got away with nothing, but there really was no closure of “He was sentenced to death” or life in prison or anything else of the sort. There was an interesting almost afterthought at the very end. Ed really wasn’t the “mastermind” behind it. Yes, he did orchestrate it all, but the idea was put into his head, on an alcohol-fueled binge, and he doesn’t even recall that it really was never his idea to get rid of his wife.

 

It was his brother-in-law’s.

Friday Fun Facts!

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Author: E.B. White (Elwyn Brooks)

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Born: July 11, 1899

Died: October 1, 1985

 

Fun Facts: He was a contributor for the New Yorker, co-author of “The Elements of Style”, and writer of “Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, Stuart Little 2, Call of the Wild, and others

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Quote: “If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

― E.B. White

 

Many have grown up with Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little being some of the first books we were introduced to as children. I wish more children today still felt the enjoyment and wonder of walking into a library and seeing nothing but shelves full of adventure, mystery, heartbreak, and miracles.

So, to cut to the chase……

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Barry offed Vanhi. Ed set up another, yes, another, double-deal (how many does that make now?) and is going to have Peter Sudgen kill Barry, therefore eliminating that connection. Unfortunately, Barry is more of the murdering type than I would have first suspected of him. As Peter meets Barry at the docks and is going to inject him with a needle full of insulin (and then toss him over the railing into the ocean) Barry sees the needle before it gets near him, and wrestles with Peter, knocks him over the railing into the ocean below, and that’s that for Mr. Peter Sudgen(-sometimes-Jones).

Ed catches this information on the news, and realizes he now has a bigger problem than he first thought. Really Ed?

So now Yosef is in the picture, trying to find someone to kill his tay-sachs disease-riddled son; he is suffering way too much. So Yosef just tosses himself right into the middle of this web, along with Anthony (known as Ant), remember, he spent 3 years in prison and came out with a really bad attitude, and HIV to boot (maybe I didn’t mention him?? He took the fall for the drug bust at the college…..ahhh, nevermind, he is likely to get it before the end of this story too).

So Ed’s got several people on the line waiting to kill someone in return for their target being killed. There is also an issue of money being involved now; because Ed needs money.

So, I did get a good chunk of this book read, and will give the final update on whose left standing at the end, who’s in jail, and who didn’t make it.

Confused yet? Yep. Me too!

Back To London, and the Mess Edwin is Making

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Well, the bodies are definitely piling up now. With many more to come, by the looks of it.

Mr. Racist Peter Sudgen and his wife are invited to a housewarming party at their foreign neighbors, and he vows to get rid of them by Christmas. Edwin gets questioned, spits out “I didn’t kill her!” as well as “I have an alibi!” Way to play it cool Ed, way to play it cool.

We find out Peter is doing some shady trading in the market for his clients, and I am wondering how long before he is on the top of someone’s list.

Ed decides Vanhi needs to be taken care of as well, because since she uses the darknet, she could possibly track him down and confess everything if she ever got caught.

Barry wants Ed to take care of Jessica and her new boyfriend, and Ed still needs to get rid of Vanhi’s hit; remember, Mr. Pockmarked-Face? So Barry stabs Mr. Pockmarked-Face (apparently he was Emanuel Richard) to death, and then Ed tells him he has to kill another as well, since Ed is killing 2 for him.

So Barry buys an illegal gun, meets Vanhi and tries to get to know her since he is an utter failure at following her. Edwin decides he needs a rock-solid alibi for when Vanhi is killed, so he gets himself chucked into jail for the night.

Detective Morton is noticing the bodies beginning to pile up. From page 81, “…members of the public were randomly killing each other and not leaving evidence, and without there being any apparent motive.” (Campbell & Campbell, Dead on Demand). I have to say, that actually made me laugh out loud.

There is no way I will get this book finished over the rest of my short weekend. I am only on page 88 of 265. Yes, that much has happened in 88 pages. Honestly, the story is starting to give me a headache, but I really do want to find out how many people end up doing each other in, and if Ed ever gets caught for starting this whole fiasco.

What are you reading this weekend?

 

Friday Fun Facts!

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Rev Fr Andrew M. Greeley
Rev Fr Andrew M. Greeley

Author: Andrew Greeley

Born: February 5, 1928, Oak Park, Illinois

Died: May 29, 2013, Chicago, Illinois

Quote: Andy Greeley once said of the nation’s Catholic Bishops that they are “morally, intellectually, and religiously bankrupt.”

 

Andrew Greeley has definitely turned into one of my favorite authors. I found his books completely by accident, roaming around the aisles of my library looking for something to catch my eye. I believe it was a book from his “Irish” series, and the word Irish is indeed what caught my attention. What turned into reading a couple books over a weekend (yes, over a weekend; life was simpler then!) turned into me reading every single book I could find at my library and buy from Barnes and Noble. That these Irish stories also took place in Chicago, with references to real places in Michigan was just an added bonus for me.  He wrote over 120 books, and had 10 that were on the New York Times Bestseller list, starting with The Cardinal Sins, which was published in 1981.

One of Numerous Amazing Books!
One of Numerous Amazing Books!

He wrote numerous stories and short series with different priests in the main role, and his stories were very open and honest about how he really felt God felt about his followers. These books had swearing, and sex, and even murder, as they were fiction, but I cannot imagine anyone of any religious background, or none at all, as being offended by what these stories told.

 

Irish Love

Mr. Greeley was a Priest, Scholar, Social Critic, and avid storyteller. He was very outspoken about demanding punishment for priests who abused children, often finding himself in hot water. He became wealthy from the publication of his stories, and donated his first earned million to charity, and continued to support numerous charities throughout his lifetime.

 

I have to say, I am not Catholic, I have only witnessed a Catholic wedding once, I have never been to a Catholic Mass, and am only familiar with the fact that Catholics say “Hail Mary’s”, use rosary’s, and confess their sins to a priest. I in no way mean any disrespect what-so-ever. I am a Lutheran (Protestant) and was raised that way, so that is what I know. I am only pointing this out because I grasped these stories with both hands and couldn’t bear to set them down. The storytelling is incredible, and when you finish one, you cannot wait to get your hands on the next. Reading about a priest who solves murders, and has a sense of humor, is fun and refreshing. I can honestly say I was deeply saddened when I began looking into information on Mr. Greeley and discovered that after suffering a stroke, he was no longer able to write, and was incapacitated for several years.  I was even more saddened to learn of his passing when it happened last year, and thinking about the happiness his stories have brought me is making this difficult to write as well. There are many, many authors whom I deeply enjoy and will read their numerous books, but there are indeed only a few who truly get their words and stories wrapped around my brain and leave an indelible mark on me forever.

Casting Call For Dead on Demand

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Before I get any further into this story, I thought I would put out a list (I was going to say short list, but that would be a huge lie) of all the characters who seem to be somehow tied together in this little London town because of Edwin’s urge to off his wife. So here goes:

 

Edwin: master plotter (Can we just call him Ed, already? Thanks!)

Eleanor: unfortunate wife to Ed, who bit the dust fairly early

Drew: Ed and Eleanor’s son who passed away

Chelsea: The daughter who is now motherless

Betty: Ed’s secretary

Derek Wood: Newspaper owner, and former employer of Ed, until he let him go

Caroline Flack: Ed’s newly hired divorce attorney (talk about a bad day; divorce papers, then getting canned)

Wood’s personal assistant: so-far unnamed, but the way this story is going, likely to be the plotter of someone else’s demise or a poor sap to get offed pretty soon

Mark: Ed’s brother-in-law, Eleanor’s brother

Palmer: another employee of the paper, in the advertising department (so-far unimportant, but why else did the authors’ give him a name?)

Jeremy Kyle: television news reporter, and by Ed’s comments, Eleanor’s boyfriend?

Yosef Gershwin: father to a son with tay-sachs disease, who vows he will not let him suffer

son: not yet named, but obviously on the wrong end of his father’s plot to “not let him suffer”

Vanhi: prostitute in London, and killer of Eleanor

Jaison: Vanhi’s boyfriend

Mr. Pockmarked-Face: dweller in Vanhi’s nightmares, she is determined to get rid of him for good (which is how Eleanor ended up dead, and Ed finds himself in quite the pickle)

David Morton: Detective Chief Inspector, trying to solve one murder, likely to have the bodies piling up on his desk fairly quickly as things seem to be getting out of hand

David’s technician: another unnamed, but who knows, he may have a whole chapter to himself in a few pages, so I am mentioning him

Dr. Jensen: A psychologist who suspects everyone, he is right to think Ed has something to hide from studying his phone conversations and interviews

Peter K. Sudgen (Jones): Racist Bigot Idiot (my words, not the authors’) who is determined to get rid of his foreign neighbors (His name was Sudgen-Jones for a minute in the book, then it disappeared. Honestly, I am not lying)

Mrs. Sudgen: apparent wimp of a woman and enabler of her Racist Bigot Idiot husband

Barry Chambers: lovelorn fool who is going to propose to Jessica, if she ever shows up for their dinner reservation

Jessica: Dumper of Barry by the next weekend, and likely to be on the receiving end of someone’s poorly-planned execution plot

 

So there you have it, less than halfway done with this story and it has more characters then a quiet game of “Guess Who?”

 

I will have this book finished before the weekend is out. I have to say, I am rather curious now how Ed is going to get himself out of this mess (or try to, I should say) but it is still a bit of a difficult read.

Repost – 31 Completely Acceptable Reasons To Break Up With A Book

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I have only not finished one book (so far), but a lot of these things on this list sure ring a bell with me!

#’s 1, 6, 8, 13, and so many more!

Check it out:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/31-completely-acceptable-reasons-to-break-up-with-a-book/