Mind Over Murder — The Characters

Renown scientist Professor Werner Van Braun has been botching experiments since his junior high science fair, when he accidentally crash-landed his weather balloon in the dessert. He narrowly evaded authorities when his odd looks and speech impediment caused them to mistake him for an alien and he escaped unidentified from Area 51.

Sarah Bellum, the professor's wife, is an aging Southern belle of great inherited wealth. Sadly, her days are numbered; and so is her bank account - with well over nine digits.While her family fortune has been funding her husband's experiments, she is resolved that there's no money like old money, even if it smells funny.

Lug, the laboratory assistant and former experiment, worked with Stephen Hawking until the Professor switched his brain. Now he thinks Hawking is a bird.

Colette, a famous French fashion magazine editor and lover of beauty (especially her own), lives by the philosophy "Pour aimer les autres, l'amour vous en premier." (To love others you must first love yourself.) She's got the second part, anyway.

Hank, a poor bubblehead from the upper Midwest, suffers from a hazard of his region - repeated blows to the head from ice hockey, ice fishing and frost inhalation.He killed his therapist by boring him to death.