Fiddling Under Vesuvius

Twenty years after leaving his (fictional) home town of Cranston, Michigan, world famous writer/playwright Warren Kramer returns to town at the request of his niece, Sylvia Hampton, a member of the Cranston Community Players, to help bale out the debt-ridden amateur theatre group. Within days, Kramer is found on the stage of The Palace theatre with a dagger in his chest.

Granted, Kramer was hated by many people in show business due to his arrogant attitude and his floundering writing career, but the case quickly focuses on Casey Thomas, a freelance journalist and blues musician who had major cause to hold a grudge against Kramer. At the age of nineteen, Casey's mentor, then amateur theatre director Warren Kramer, stole his future. Kramer went on to become a successful novelist while Casey's life plunged into a downward spiral of self doubt and depression.

Casey becomes the number one suspect when the media digs up his past connection to Kramer. Casey, must deal with the 'media circus' that spawns a 'feeding frenzy' of invading tourists and some elusive adversaries who manipulate the facts in order to ensure Casey takes the fall for Kramer’s murder. If that isn't bad enough, Bruno Pulchinski, a hulking body builder extraordinaire, is out for Casey's hide, his ex-fiancée Dana Cranston is trying to ruin his life for breaking off their engagement and his editor at the Cranston Tribune, Herman Weis, is pressuring Casey to turn the story into tabloid fodder in order to boost the paper's circulation.

Fortunately, Casey is aided by Suzie Allen, the golden girl fitness instructor he encounters while covering a story on fitness and body building for the Cranston Tribune. As their budding romance develops, Suzie's mystical outlook on life helps Casey awaken his suppressed emotions and find his spiritual self, as he begins to understand that sharkespeare had it right: "All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts."

Fiddling Under Vesuvius features a cast of quirky characters and a whimsical metaphysical theme as Casey tries to untangle himself from the "wicked web" that weaves itself around him.