Lulu Marketplace

"Muder, Mayhem & Mickey Mouse - Part I"
From the very first word, Death at Disney evoked a strong sense of the 1950's cop show, Dragnet. Not because the story is a period piece, but while I read the opening I could hear the narrator for Dragnet in my mind, becoming the voice of the main character, private investigator, Albert Cummings. The story opens with Cummings visiting the world of Disney, "the happiest place on earth", as it is billed. And we enter into the thoughts of Cummings as he spends... More > his time alone observing he is not the only unhappy person there. This was to be the dream vacation of a lifetime; it's just too bad he is unable to share it with his wife, who is now an ex, and his daughter. Through the introduction, we see Albert Cummings as a jaded, tired, professional, who didn't see how his job destroyed his family until it was too late. He is fast becoming irritated with the ubiquitous Disney cheer, and has found nothing to distract him from his own depressing thoughts.

Death at Disney is written primarily in first person present tense, which works well for this story because Albert has come to a cross-roads in his life. What he has lost is left behind, and he doesn't have a good sense of what's ahead so he is living in the here and now. That all changes when he meets Sarah Williams, a teenage pickpocket, trying to scrape together enough money to sustain herself by fleecing tourists at Disney World.

I now take a look around me and notice the direction in which the majority of the throng around me is heading. With a small gleam in my eye, I notice most of them carrying various guides to the park and following the directions like sheep. I turn to the left at the first intersection I can, avoiding the sea now turning right. As I make the turn, I feel a bump at my side. A hand snakes into my jacket with a fleeting touch. It feels almost like a butterfly kissing a rose petal, but I’m trained to be very conscious of my surroundings and my body. I grab the arm before the person can leave my side.

Continued in Part II < Less