Playing With the Dead

About the Book

Noël Coward Meets Dracula? A drawing-room comedy set in a mausoleum? "Playing With the Dead" juxtaposes these wildly different elements with rare style and whimsy. Set against the eerie background of a Michigan Upper Peninsula town on the Lake Superior shore, it pits Walter Green, a no-nonsense engineer, against Gerald Claymore, gatekeeper of a place where the living can meet those who have passed on before them. Complications arise when Gerald’s former wife—whom he poisoned back in 1898—attracts the romantic attention of Walter’s friend John Wilcox, who by dint of being the town drunk suffers a serious credibility problem. Charlotte Claymore, who wasn’t satisfied with just one man during her lifetime, manifests the same traits a century later, drawing not only Walter and John, but her former husband Gerald, into her intrigues.

About the Author

Dennis Havens, former Las Vegas musician, began writing mystery/suspense novels on breaks between shows. With over a dozen completed works, he is busy on a new book, set in the turbulent, high-stakes world of virtuoso conductors and New York symphonic music in the decade following World War II. Havens now makes his home in Oklahoma City.