(As with
yesterday, SPOILERS for plot but NO SPOILERS for the mystery's
solution.)
Dark Shadows:
The Tony & Cassandra Mysteries 1.2:
The Mystery
of La Danse Macabre
written by
Zara Symes
Yesterday's
story was a take on Agatha Christie, this one is riffing on the
Scooby Doo format. Tony and Cassandra are brought in to investigate
the supposed haunting of a music hall inherited by the friend of a
friend of their secretary Rita from her recently deceased father. The
friend, Peggy, and her brother have been trying to restore the music
hall but they've been getting offers for the land. Peggy wants to
rebuild the hall that was her father's obsession, Russ wants to sell
the damn place.
Naturally,
Tony puts the hauntings and small fires that have been breaking out
on Russ in classic Scooby Doo fashion. Cassandra, meanwhile, believes
that something more supernatural is going on and keeps sensing
“something” as they explore the old music hall. Meanwhile,
there's the preserved dressing room of a ballerina who committed
suicide on the premises, a perfect candidate for a haunting.
Honestly,
its a perfect scenario for Tony and Cassandra's first official case
together because it plays to both their strengths. The transparent
motive of the brother means that Terry, a man who has seen more than
enough supernatural shit, has a reason to be cynical and go for the
debunking explanation over trusting the powers he knows full well
Cassandra has. Whether or not he's right or the ghost is real I'll
leave unsaid but needless to say the resolution revolves around both
partners using their unique skill sets at the same time.
The main
conflict of the story comes from Tony and Cassandra learning to work
together as partners, actual partners instead of the temporary
alliances of previous adventures. Of course we come back to the deep
trust issues that exist between the two as Tony questions
Cassandra's sense of romance given her past manipulating him.
Cassandra, meanwhile, has ample reason to question whether Tony
actually wants her as a partner or merely an assistant. For his part,
Terry ignores her supernatural senses continuously, urging her to
think in terms of evidence and motive rather than her instincts.
It does the
job that the second story of these four part box sets do: we got the
team together in the last story and this one fixes or addresses the
lingering issues before we move into the “status quo” story of
the third and the blow everything up phase of the fourth. So it
should be said I heartily look forward to hearing what the status quo
version of this team works.
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