WHO'S WHO
IN THE
DIANA SPAULDING MYSTERIES



Shown on the cover are Diana Spaulding (in the cameo to your right),
and from top to bottom: Maggie Northcote, Aaron Northcote, and Ben Northcote.

Beware of spoilers. The Diana Spaulding Mysteries will eventually consist of four books and a few short stories.
These brief biographies do not give away the identity of any murderers, but they may reveal information about the characters that you'd rather not know until you read the books.



DIANA SPAULDING


Diana Torrence Spaulding is the fictional sleuth in the Diana Spaulding Mysteries. She was born in Colorado on June 8, 1864, was sent to a girl's school in San Francisco at fourteen, and eloped with an actor in 1882. It is now 1888 and Diana, a widow, earns her living by writing a column called "Today's Tidbits" for the Independent Intelligencer, a New York City scandal sheet. She reports on theatrical gossip and writes reviews. She'd like to go after more meaty stories, but her editor wants scandal. Diana is estranged from her parents, who disowned her for eloping. As far as she knows in DEADLIER THAN THE PEN she has no other relatives.




BEN NORTHCOTE


Benjamin Northcote is 32 when Diana meets him. A physician, he hails from Bangor, Maine. See below for his family there. In addition to being a doctor, he is also a coroner for the city of Bangor. Diana meets him in DEADLIER THAN THE PEN and they work together to solve crimes in all four books in the series.




HORATIO FOXE

Horatio Foxe is editor and publisher of the Independent Intelligencer. His slogan is "Scandal Sells Newspapers." In spite of his desire to get sensational stories, however, he has a very real affection for Diana.




MAGDA (MAGGIE) BATHORY NORTHCOTE


Matriarch of the Northcote family, Maggie has a unique way of looking at the world. In a word, she's eccentric. She's fifty years old but looks closer to thirty-five and is devoted to a cat named Cedric.




AARON NORTHCOTE


Ben's younger brother is an artist who has a few problems dealing with reality.




FRANCESCA CURRAN

Diana's landlady, a retired actress




NATHAN (TODDY) TODD

Actor/Manager of Todd's Touring Thespians, Toddy is an old friend of Diana's.




JERUSHA FILDALE

Leading actress in Todd's company, she befriended Diana during Diana's marriage to Evan Spaulding




LAVINIA ROSS

Ingenue in Todd's Touring Thespians




CHARLES UNDERLY

An actor in Todd's Touring Thespians




BILLY SIMS

Another actor in Todd's Touring Thespians




NEW FACES IN THE SECOND BOOK IN THE SERIES



ELMIRA GRANT TORRENCE

Diana Spaulding's mother, she's accused of killing William Torrence, Diana's father, in a hotel in Denver, Colorado. Elmira was born in New York state, where her family owned a hotel. She eloped with William Torrence and went West with him during the silver rush of 1859. William struck it rich in 1573 and built his family a mansion in Denver. He also founded a town and named it after himself. For history fans, there is a lot of Horace Tabor in William Torrence. He even divorced his wife for a younger woman. In my fictional world, however, Elmira did not fare as well as Augusta Tabor. And William, of course, ends up a murder victim.




MIRANDA CHAMBERS TORRENCE

William Torrence's second wife. She married him right after his divorce became final in 1885. To Diana's mind, Miranda had as much reason to want her father dead as Elmira did.




MATT HASTINGS

He lives next door to the Torrence mansion in Denver and remembers Diana from her schoolgirl days. He's willing to help her find her mother, but does he have an ulterior motive?




JANE FOSTER

The young woman in charge of female "boarders" at the Elmira Hotel, she is no more sure of Diana's motives than Diana is of hers. Like many young women of the day, she practices a regimen of physical fitness.




ALAN KENT

He worked for William Torrence and appears to be courting Jane. Just whose side is he on, anyway?




NING

One of the many Chinese immigrants living in Denver, Ning does odd jobs at the Elmira Hotel. He knows more than he's saying.




PEARL ADAMS

Owner of another establishment on Holladay Street, Pearl knows something about Diana's late husband, but does it have anything to do with William Torrence's murder?




CHARLIE DUNCAN

Assistant Manager of the Windsor Hotel, where Diana's father was slain, he's out to make a profit by showing the murder scene to tourists, but does he have another connection to William Torrence?




THE LATE EVAN SPAULDING

Diana's deceased husband plays a role in events unfolding in Denver when she realizes just how closely her father kept an eye on her when she was married. Evan was shot for cheating at cards in a gambling den in Leadville, Colorado. Shortly afterward, Diana prevailed upon her old school friend, Rowena Foxe Vanderlowen, to help her get a job at the Independent Intelligencer working for Rowena's sister Horatio.




ED LEEVES

A prominent figure in Denver's underworld, he has a personal interest in Elmira Torrence. They grew up in the same small town in New York State. My historical inspirations for this character were Ed Chase and Cortez D. Thomson.




MRS. ERNESTINE BOWDEN

Hired as a chaperone, she isn't much use since she's almost totally deaf.




THE RESIDENTS OF THE ELMIRA HOTEL

Red Katie
Honeycomb
Long Tall Linda
Strawberry Sue
Maryam
Big Nose Nellie DuBois
Maybelle
Chastity
The Professor
Louise, the cook
Georgia, the night maid




REAL PEOPLE APPEARING IN THE NOVEL

Mattie Silks (c. 1849-1939), madam
Jennie Rogers (1843-1909), madam
Eva Lewis, madam
Anna Gouldie Gould (1862-1936), madam
Co. John Arkins of the Rocky Mountain News
Gun Wa (W. H. Hale), the "great Chinese physician"
Harry Tammen, bartender at the Windsor
Hugh Crymble (1845-1906), sheriff of Chaffee County
Tom Patterson (1839-1916), lawyer




WHO'S WHO IN THE THIRD BOOK IN THE SERIES



THE HOTEL GRANT

The hotel belonging to Diana's mother's family plays a key role in NO MORTAL REASON. It is based on a number of real places in Sullivan County, New York, where I grew up, and elsewhere. The "farm/boardinghouse" that grew into a hotel was very common from the late nineteenth century on. The most famous in my home town of Liberty, New York was Grossingers. The most famous in Maine, where I now life, was the Poland Spring House.

My story is fictional and so is the Hotel Grant and the village it is located in. The town of Liberty, however, is real, and I have drawn on both local and family history to set my scenes. Those interested in reading the memoirs of Fred Gorton of Liberty, my paternal grandfather, including entries from the diary of his uncle, David Hall, can find THE LIFE OF A PLODDER by clicking here: . Then there are the stories from my mother's side of the family. To read those, and see pictures of a real farm/boardinghouse that operated from the late nineteenth century through the 1950s in Hurleyville, New York,click here:

That same button will take you to miscellaneous articles about Diana's world that have previously appeared in issues of my newsletter, FACE DOWN UPDATE AND DEADLY TIDBITS. Scroll down to reach them if you could care less about the Hornbecks of Hurleyville. And now, back to your regularly scheduled progam.


HOWARD (HOWD) GRANT
Diana's uncle, he's an artist and naturalist, a widower, a father, and a murder suspect.

MERCY GRANT
Diana's 18 year old cousin, daughter of her Uncle Howd. Mercy is in charge of growing flowers for the hotel . . . and much more.

MYRON GRANT
Diana's uncle, he's the driving force behind the hotel and the desire to make Lenape Springs into the next Saratoga. He's also just a tad gullible.

ISAAC TORRENCE
Diana's 92 year old grandfather.

ANNA JEANETTE (JANETTE) TORRENCE FARQUHAR
Diana's aunt (her father's sister).

SEBASTIAN ELLINGTON
Another of Diana's cousins, the youngest of the six children of Sally Ann Grant Ellington.

TRESSA ELLINGTON
Sebastian's maiden aunt, Tressa is housekeeper at the hotel,but she's more than that to both Howd and Mercy Grant.

FLOYD LYSETH
Caretaker at the Hotel Grant. A taciturn gent who doesn't seem to like anybody.

CELIA LYSETH
Floyd's wife, another employee at the hotel. She "got religion" after her daughter Elly ran off with a peddler . . . or did she?

NORMAN T. SAUGUS
A speculator from New York City.

BELLE SAUGUS
His brassy wife.

LUKE CASTINE
Mercy's beau. Other members of his family also appear in this story. There's his father, Erastus Castine, the blacksmith in Lenape Springs, his brother Freddy, his uncle Elmer (Erastus's brother), who owns the general store, Elmer's wife Emma, and their young daughter, Rose.

JONAS RIKER
A fire and brimstone preacher.

LIDA ROSE LEEVES RIKER
Riker's wife and, coincidentally, the sister of the man Diana's mother has been keeping company with out in Denver.

SCORCHER
The telegram delivery boy. His real name is Simon Tanner, and he previously appeared as a character in JULIA'S MENDING a novel set in Liberty Falls in 1887 and written for young people ages 8-12.

TREMONT
A goat named after a hotel. The Poland Spring House in Maine really did have a resident goat to help keep the grass trimmed.

REAL PEOPLE WHO APPEAR IN THE STORY
SHERIFF WALTER VAIL IRVING
A dedicated lawman getting bad press because of Sailor Jack.

SAILOR JACK ALLEN
A murderer already in jail in Monticello.

ARTHUR P. BUCKLEY
Coroner and dentist who lived in Liberty. According the the 1880 census he would have been 38 in 1888. He was involved in the Sailor Jack case. He died in 1914.


Inventing Diana's family tree was part of creating this series, and although I didn't fill in all the branches, I did give names to all of her mother's brothers and sisters. Lawrence Grant (1797-1854) and Maria Hornbeck had, I decided, six children: Myron (b. 1820), Sally Ann (b. 1823; m. A. I. Ellington, Tressa's brother), Luella (b. 1825), Ida May (b. 1828), Howard (b. 1830), and Elmira (b.1835). Elmira eloped with William Torrence in 1855.


WHO'S WHO IN THE FOURTH AND FINAL BOOK IN THE SERIES




RETURNING CHARACTERS
BEN AND DIANA, of course

ELMIRA GRANT TORRENCE LEEVES
Now married herself, Diana's mother makes the trip east for her daughter's wedding, bringing her new husband with her.

MAGDA (MAGGIE) BATHORY NORTHCOTE
Ben's mother (actually his father's second wife and Aaron's mother, but she raised both boys) has her own ideas about wedding ceremonies, and a willingness to believe in impossible things. Is it her creative imagination? Is she just eccentric? Or is there something more to her contention that Justus Palmer is a vampire?

AARON NORTHCOTE
Aaron is the reason Ben has made a study of treatments for the insane. Aaron is a talented artist, but he hears voices. Ben has no intention of letting his brother be institutionalized, and for the moment, he has things under control.

HORATIO FOXE
Diana's editor isn't about to miss out on any potentially scandalous story, not even if he has to betray Diana's trust (again!) to get it.

ANNA JEANETTE (JANETTE) TORRENCE FARQUHAR
Diana's aunt is among the first of her newly discovered family to arrive in Bangor for the wedding. Her interest in family history ends up providing Diana with all sorts of information.



NEW CHARACTERS IN LETHAL LEGEND
GRAHAM SOMENER
Ben's childhood friend. Graham was an promiment Boston architect until a building collapse ruined his life. He now lives on a private island in Penobscot Bay, hiding from the world at large. How much will he do to protect his sanctuary?

SERENA DUNBAR
This lady archaeologist has a few secrets of her own. When she persuades Graham Somener to let her dig on his island, both love and murder ensue.

JUSTUS PALMER
Palmer is a private detective from Boston, but there's something very strange about him. Maggie is struck by how much he looks like his father, a man she knew years ago, before she married. Is he just a skilled hypnotist . . . or is there more to it than that?

PRUDENCE MONROE
Graham's housekeeper has her own links to Keep Island, and an intimate knowledge of the life Graham's Aunt Min lived there years ago. Mrs. Monroe is the one who tells Serena there is a curse on the island, but is she repeating local lore or making up a story for her own reasons?

FRANK ENNIS
Serena's fellow archaeologist has his own agenda, and Serena is part of it. Too bad he's the only one who fits into the diving suit.

PAUL CARSTAIRS
Another archaeologist, this one notable for his fondness for Moxie Nerve Food. Carstairs hasn't had the best of luck on recent expeditions. He suffered a bad accident on the last one and is poisoned and nearly dies on this one.

LUCIEN WINTHROP
This elderly, white-haired archaeologist is more spry than he looks! And he's involved in skulduggery up to his eyebrows. But is he the real villain? And why did he hire Justus Palmer to investigate "criminal activity" on Keep Island?

OTHERS
Minerva (Min) Somener, Graham's late aunt
Amos Cobb, captain of the Miss Min
Caleb Reed, a boy with a boat
George Amity, a local man hired to excavate at the archaeological site
Zenobia Entwhistle, society matron
Landrigan and MacDougall, the two guards hired to protect Keep Island
a librarian who took care of Bangor's books before there was a Bangor Public Library
a telegraph operator in Belfast who may have caught a glimpse of the villain
a young and inexperienced Hancock County coroner
a maid


REAL PEOPLE WHO APPEAR IN THE STORY
OSCAR F. FELLOWS (1857-1921)
County attorney for Hancock County, he lived in Bucksport.

DOREPHUS L. FIELDS (1843-1918)
Sheriff of Hancock County for two terms and a deputy sheriff before that, Fields served in the Civil War in both the army and the navy. He lived in Ellsworth. "For many years" he was also a county coroner, a job which did not require medical training.

JAMES CLEMONS (J. C.) CHILCOTT (1832-1893)
Although Chilcott was editor of the Ellsworth American for nearly eight years, he was not a professional journalist. He'd been a school teacher for twenty years and then was deputy collector of customs in the Frenchman's Bay district. He fought in the Civil War and was injured. As editor, he introduced a nine-column, four-page format and high moral and ethical standards for the weekly newspaper, which was popular all over the state. He was a temperance man. He was also active in the Maine Press Association. He would not have approved of Diana or of the Independent Intelligencer.

THE GOOD FOLKS OF ISLESBOROUGH
John P. Farrow
Lincoln Gilkey
Pyram D. (Uncle Py) Hatch and family
Joseph Sprague


DIANA'S FAMILY TREE

Since Diana is looking into her family history as well as solving murder mysteries, I decided to make a family tree for her. As I explain in the author note at the end of LETHAL LEGEND, Diana is descended from Rosamond Appleton, the foster daughter/stepdaughter of the sleuth in my other mystery series.

 

Descendants of Sir Robert Appleton

 

 

Generation No. 1

 

1.  SIR ROBERT1 APPLETON was born 1525, and died 1565.  He married SUSANNA LEIGH.  He had an affair with ELIZABETH LOVELL.  She was born 1538.

       

Child of SIR APPLETON and ELIZABETH LOVELL is:

2.               i.    ROSAMOND2 APPLETON, b. 1562.

 

 

Generation No. 2

 

2.  ROSAMOND2 APPLETON (SIR ROBERT1) was born 1562.  She married ROBERT JAFFREY.  He was born 1562.

       

Child of ROSAMOND APPLETON and ROBERT JAFFREY is:

3.               i.    ANDREW3 JAFFREY, b. Bet. 1582 - 1592.

 

 

Generation No. 3

 

3.  ANDREW3 JAFFREY (ROSAMOND2 APPLETON, SIR ROBERT1) was born Bet. 1582 - 1592.  He married UNKNOWN. 

       

Child of ANDREW JAFFREY and UNKNOWN is:

4.               i.    JANET4 JAFFREY, b. 1619.

 

 

Generation No. 4

 

4.  JANET4 JAFFREY (ANDREW3, ROSAMOND2 APPLETON, SIR ROBERT1) was born 1619.  She married TRISTRAM MANSFIELD.  He was born 1607, and died 1682. They emigrated to Rhode Island in 1661.

       

Child of JANET JAFFREY and TRISTRAM MANSFIELD is:

5.               i.    REBECCA5 MANSFIELD.

 

 

Generation No. 5

 

5.  REBECCA5 MANSFIELD (JANET4 JAFFREY, ANDREW3, ROSAMOND2 APPLETON, SIR ROBERT1)  She married ISAAC TORRENCE.  He was born 1646, and died 1745 in New London, Connecticut.

       

Child of REBECCA MANSFIELD and ISAAC TORRENCE is:

6.               i.    WILLIAM6 TORRENCE, b. 1697; d. 1766.

 

 

Generation No. 6

 

6.  WILLIAM6 TORRENCE (REBECCA5 MANSFIELD, JANET4 JAFFREY, ANDREW3, ROSAMOND2 APPLETON, SIR ROBERT1) was born 1697, and died 1766.  He married ELIZABETH COMSTOCK. 

       

Child of WILLIAM TORRENCE and ELIZABETH COMSTOCK is:

7.               i.    DANIEL7 TORRENCE, b. 1729; d. 1821.

 

 

Generation No. 7

 

7.  DANIEL7 TORRENCE (WILLIAM6, REBECCA5 MANSFIELD, JANET4 JAFFREY, ANDREW3, ROSAMOND2 APPLETON, SIR ROBERT1) was born 1729, and died 1821.  He married CATHERINE ROBERTS.  He was a Revolutionary War soldier. He moved to Liberty, New York after 1797.

       

Child of DANIEL TORRENCE and CATHERINE ROBERTS is:

8.               i.    ISAAC8 TORRENCE, b. 1773; d. 1854.

 

 

Generation No. 8

 

8.  ISAAC8 TORRENCE (DANIEL7, WILLIAM6, REBECCA5 MANSFIELD, JANET4 JAFFREY, ANDREW3, ROSAMOND2 APPLETON, SIR ROBERT1) was born 1773, and died 1854.  He married JANE LEWIS.  She was born 1778, and died 1866.

       

Child of ISAAC TORRENCE and JANE LEWIS is:

9.               i.    ISAAC9 TORRENCE, b. 1796.

 

 

Generation No. 9

 

9.  ISAAC9 TORRENCE (ISAAC8, DANIEL7, WILLIAM6, REBECCA5 MANSFIELD, JANET4 JAFFREY, ANDREW3, ROSAMOND2 APPLETON, SIR ROBERT1) was born 1796.  He married LILY WESTON. 

       

Children of ISAAC TORRENCE and LILY WESTON are:

10.             i.    WILLIAM10 TORRENCE, d. 1888.

                 ii.    ANNA JEANETTE TORRENCE

 

 

Generation No. 10

 

10.  WILLIAM10 TORRENCE (ISAAC9, ISAAC8, DANIEL7, WILLIAM6, REBECCA5 MANSFIELD, JANET4 JAFFREY, ANDREW3, ROSAMOND2 APPLETON, SIR ROBERT1) died 1888.  He married (1) ELMIRA GRANT 1855.  She was born 1835.  Divorced 1885. He married (2) MIRANDA CHAMBERS 1884. 

       

Child of WILLIAM TORRENCE and ELMIRA GRANT is:

                  i.    DIANA11 TORRENCE, b. June 08, 1864.

 



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Last updated 7/13/2010