Playing Dead

The First Swan Theater Mystery

Shawn Burke is a retired television actor who, for twelve years, portrayed private detective Quentin Mars on a popular television show. Taking some of the substantial money he made as a result of his success, Shawn has purchased a former church in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts and renovated it to be a theater where he intends to put on legitimate theater productions for the many New Yorkers who travel to the Berkshires during the summer. He sees this as an opportunity to give young talent, both actors and writers, a chance to get started. It will also be his opportunity to be an owner, producer, and director. Never having seen himself as anything more than an average actor, he believes that his greatest strength is that he always listened carefully to those with greater talent,and he wishes to pass some of that wisdom on to the next generation.

All goes well until someone attacks two of his actors, threatening the future of the performance. Determined to put on the show, he must discover the identity of the perpetrator of these attacks. With the help of a woman who claims to have witch-like powers, Shawn must become in real life what he was on television: a skilled detective.