The Rounders get their name from the round antique oak table where they meet on Thursdays for coffee and conversation. It's located at Midway: a cafe and gas station that has tourist cabins in back. Midway is at the Benton County junction of highways 218 and 30 in Eastern Iowa along the Lincoln Highway. Operated as a speakeasy and bordello during Prohibition, Mackenzie Brownlee purchased it in 1933 ; she doesn't even like to go upstairs where young women plied their trade. She prefers to live in an old clapboard house out behind the tourist cabins. In addition to selling food, gas, and overnight cabins, Mac sells antiques.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Stoner—Mildred Stone, forty-seven. Everybody just calls her Stoner. It is an unusual a nickname for a woman. But, it suits her abrasive, forceful style. When her husband died, she continued to run their hardware store and lumberyard in Blairstown; she was also the manager of a local farmer’s grain co-op. And, just in case she didn't have enough to keep her busy, she's volunteered to run the local chapter of the Red Cross. She has two small dogs, named 'Sweet' and 'Sour' because of their contrasting personalities.
Stoner met her husband in the twenties while she was living with her aunt in Chicago. She was working, at the time, as a Taxi dancer. What's a Taxi dancer? Read the first Rounders Mystery, Murder is Announced.
Both of Stoner's parents died in the post World War I flu epidemic that killed hundreds of thousand American's and millions world-wide.
Lawrs—Lawrence Jensen, a young farmer in his mid-twenties. Lawrs is keen on telling one farmer joke everytime the rounders met. He always wears jeans and t-shirts that emphasize his slender, Frank Sinatra physique; he has a flattop. He's a graduate of the agriculture program at Iowa State. He's ambitious and progressive, interested in buying up additional farmland. None of that has curtailed his reputation as a "good-time boy." He dates every weekend, going to dances or the movies with his latest flame. Ruthie, the Midway waitress, is anxious to catch his attention and always has a plan for getting him to date her.
Roy—Roy Mortensen, a part-time lawyer and full-time amateur horticulturist. Roy is short, somewhat fragile looking, and in his late sixties. Roy wears wool pants year round and a long-sleeved dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He doesn't change his clothes and often looks frumpy. A good friend of Pansy, he hoards old copies of Pansy's daily subscriptions to the Wall Street Joural and Chicago Tribune. They sit in piles throughout his house, creating only a single path from the back door to the front room he uses as his law office. He lost his father's fortune in a venture to turn corncobs into plastic, an enterprise he read about in the Wall Street Journal.
Mac—Mackenzie Brownlee, sixty three, owner of Midway, married to an absentee long-haul trucker. Mac collects Native American artifacts and antiques. She and Stoner often go "antiquing." They have a unqiue scheme to get local farmwives to part with their best antiques at low prices. Mac's first husband died in a train crash in Wyoming. Her son died in a fight in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where he was working in a coal mine. Mac doesn't reveal to many people her unique cultural heritage.
Pansy—Frank O’Malley, runs a garage in Plainsfield. He doesn't like to do anything the local filling station will do--such as changing oil or lubricating cars. He wants real challenges to his unique skill at solving mechanical problems. He even got called in to open a locked stafe in Chelsea when the new owners could get it open. He's an Irish-Catholic with six children who daily readers the Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune. He and Roy are best friends, sometimes spending hours discussing politics or ideas from the books Roy read--like The Lonely Crowd.
Fritz—Fritz McKay. For years, he was the manager of the local hybrid seed corn company; he's now retired. He also served as mayor of Belle Plaine for several terms. His secret passion are Mickey Spillane novels. He's a good friend of Willard Carlisle who's come to town with his young wife to rehab the local King Theater and turn it into a community theater. They went to highschool together, went to the State University of Iowa, and both served in World War I. He and Stoner have a "special relationship" since they both lost their spouses several years ago.
Ruthie - Early twenties, waitress at the Midway. Ruthie is sweet, quiet and has a terrible crush on Lawrs. Mac keeps advising her to stay away from him until he's ready to settle down.
