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.