Book Report On “A Dramatic Death” Essay, Research Paper

Book Report on “A Dramatic Death”

This story starts off with the Dorking Drama Group who are making a play

everything is going well until gruesome accidents start happening but the group

ignores it until a prop falls down and kills someone. The police do a

investigation but conclude that it was a accident so the play goes on, but

everybody is convinced it was foul play and everyone in the drama group is a

suspect. The cast members start investigating the murder by themselves and

everybody starts turning against each other. In the end two cast members named

Steve and Claire find out the murder is Claire because they themselves were

attacked by her but they identified her. Emma was a jealous cast member who

loved Steve but Claire was Steve’s girlfriend, Steve always treated her like a

sister but she wanted more than that and went to great lengths to achieve.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

The main characters in my book are Steve and Emma.

Steve was a popular good looking guy who all the girls liked. He didn’t like

school that much expect the Dorking Drama Club where he acted in the play, he

had a sister and Steve was very careful to trust anyone during all the murder.

Emma was very fond of Steve but because she was Steve’s sister’s friend for so

long Steve treated her as a sister, which she didn’t like. Emma became so fond

of Steve that she start doing all these gruesome things and in the end she went

to a mental hospital. Emma liked to be in the play a lot and she was said to

have a very over active imagination.

SETTING

The setting was in a small quiet town called Dorking, the play took in a high

school drama room. The setting brings people together (the drama group) which

brings conflicts. The town was described to bring a spooky setting to the novel.

THEME

The theme of this novel is that we shouldn’t trust everybody we know no matter

how close they are. In the novel the murder is found to be a very close friend

to everyone. Everyone should be considered a suspect. This book was written is

for to show the great lengths that some people will go to for love.

CHAPTER 1

The Dorking Drama club is getting ready for a play and everybody is joking

around and acting calm. When they are rehearsing and somebody opens a prop they

scream and find there is a dead cat in the box, everyone wonders who is capable

of doing such a thing like this.

CHAPTER 2

Everyone is at school and can’t wait to get to the Drama room, they start

rehearsals with the incident of the cat still on their minds. After a while a

big prop falls from the ceiling and everyone runs for their lives they look

under the prop and there is Richard lying later pronounced dead.

CHAPTER 3

The play is halted and the police begin their investigation, who conclude that

the death was accidental. Everyone in the play thinks it was murder because the

ropes holding the props was double checked, all the members want the play to

start again because they say that the Dorking Drama Group would be the last

thing that Richard would wanted to see close.

CHAPTER 4

Everybody is suspecting each other as a murder, Steve even suspects his sister,

Richard was Steve’s best friend and Steve wanted the person who did this. Emma

finds out that Steve is going out with Claire and she becomes very Jealous.

CHAPTER 5

Emma is very disturbed and her mom is thinking of divorcing again and Emma is

starting to look very sleepy and doesn’t participate in the play as much. The

cast members start thinking that Becky killed Richard.

CHAPTER 6

Emma tries to poison the coffee and she pretended to get startled and spills her

coffee all over the place so no one notices that she didn’t drink the coffee

intentionally, but her plan doesn’t work nobody drinks the coffee because it had

a rotten smell to it. People start thinking that Hazel poisoned the drinks but

Steve sticks up for her.

CHAPTER 7

The police start investigating again because of these recent events. Later on

Claire and Suzanne get stuck in a smoke filled room because somebody set a fire

there, they start screaming and the door is broken down but they are both shaken

up.

CHAPTER 8

The parents of the students start worrying and think that the drama group should

be shut down. The police advance in their investigation and go to all the

members houses and question. The members get worried and their parents turn

against them.

CHAPTER 9

The members of the drama group have a meeting at Steve’s house, the objective

was to talk about the group continuing or not. During the meeting Steve asked

everyone to take out a piece of paper and if they were guilty of doing these

crimes put a “X” and if the person was innocent they put a check mark, one the

papers came back with a skull on it meaning that among them was a murder who was

pretending to be shocked.

CHAPTER 10

Claire and Steve spend two hours discussing the case with the police, Claire

looked very nervous and guilty. The group was amazed to see the policewomen

sitting in the audience in plain clothes.

CHAPTER 11

Everybody starts suspecting Lynne of doing the murders and Steve, Suzanne and

Emma they arrange a meeting with her thinking she’ll break down and confess,

they make a plan to meet her in the rehearsal hall in the night by sneaking

through the window. Emma tells Steven and Suzanne that she called Lynne and that

she agreed but Emma didn’t call Lynne she was luring Steve and Suzanne into a

trap.

CHAPTER 12

Suzanne and Emma got their before Steve and the whole building was dark they

called for Lynne but there was no answer Emma acted like she was frightened, all

of a sudden Suzanne was hit behind with a metal rod between her shoulder blades

she fell to the ground and her bone cracking. Emma confided to Suzanne that she

really hated her for years and that she was only friends with her to be friends

with Steve, Suzanne couldn’t believe it was her best friend who was going to

kill her now.

CHAPTER 13

Suzanne pleaded for her life and screamed but Emma just laughed, just then

Claire walked onto the stage and Emma told her to stay where she was, Emma

started to talk about her hard life she had with her parents divorcing and

everything. Claire tried to talk her out of it but it didn’t work Emma said that

Suzanne would die first because she had suck an easy life.

CHAPTER 14

Suzanne was now unconscious and Emma started to wave a knife around, Emma and

Claire had a struggle over the knife and Claire got stabbed in the arm, just

then Steve walks in and Emma dropped to the ground Steve started talking to her

that how he liked her and didn’t really like Claire and his sister. Emma started

crying and fell into Steven’s arms and Steve’s friend Staurt went and called the

police.

CHAPTER 15

When the police arrived Emma was still in Steve’s arms, and when the police

tried to get her off she wouldn’t let go. Suzanne was taken to a hospital and

Steve told Claire Emma to forget all her problems, and for once since this all

started she did.

REVIEW

I liked this book because it keeps you on the edge of your seat and you can try

to solve the murder like the characters in the book. I would give this book on a

scale on 10 a 8 ?. I like murder mysteries and this one was right up there.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bingley, Margaret. A Dramatic Death. New York: Scholastic, 1994.