About the Characters

Annie (Kelley) Martin: The rock of the family. Determined and strong but kind-hearted. Her house is the hub of the neighborhood, where all her siblings and their children gather.

Pauline (Martin) Girouard: Devoted daughter and mother. Raised Irish Catholic, she is never quite able to achieve the happiness she deserves.

The House: Bought by Annie

Martin in 1920; bequeathed to

her daughter, Pauline, in 1949;

and inherited by the author in

1996; it makes financial and

psychological demands on its

owners.

Ralph Girouard: compulsive gambler and liar who cheated on his wife. He was killed at work at the age of 51, deeply in debt. Was his death really an accident, or was it murder . . .

Jay Faugno: Pauline's son

by her first marriage. Barber and bookie with a fierce temper and a short fuse. Arrogant on the surface but deeply insecure. Does he know more about Ralph's death than he lets on?