The Climax

What mystery novelist, Alexander Bartlett, doesn’t know when he meets his female equivalent, Alexandra Zander, is that years before Alexandra pushed Alexander’s then partner, Muriel Davis, also a novelist, overboard while on a cruise. Alexandra proceeded to Muriel’s cabin and stole her manuscript. Muriel never surfaced. Alex also does not remember that he once met a sultry mail clerk named Alexandra at his agent’s office.

 

Present day, Alexander falls for the ooze of the breakthrough novelist, Alexandra. Her sexuality and talent for taunting and teasing in ways that simply aren’t fair, snares the normally perceptive mystery writer into a web of pheromone-rich manipulation.

 

When it comes to light that Alexander and Alexandra are both locked into a furious writing campaign to win the equivalent of a Pulitzer in the mystery genre, a shared writing retreat to Alexander’s family cabin in Colorado seems like a brilliant plan. Perhaps it would be a brilliant plan if they both weren’t Scorpios and manifesting the worst of the jealous, competitive, vengeful qualities the feared sign has been known to render. Each sets upon a campaign to hack the computer of the other and steal plot points, characters and maybe the whole damn story. And while they're at at it, each discover it’s really a lot more fun to see if, through the best psychological and sexual manipulations ever, one can get the other to spill their story.

 

Certainly, someone’s going to come out on top. Will it take murder again? What are the odds?

 

Spoiler alert: Alexandra manages to put an end to Alex in the root cellar in the cabin, stealing his story, which wins coveted literary prizes and securing her success.

A light snow falls on Christmas decorations at a bookstore in Denver. The mood is warm, loving and harmonious. We pull in through the window to see Alexandra signing copies of a book to a long line of holiday shoppers. We see that the book is Alexander's story entitled Birth after Murder. We pull back to hear a gathering group of Christmas carolers singing, ". . . Peace on Earth, good will towards men . . ." Through the falling snow we listen to the carolers fading into the snow as the closing credits roll.