Paul Levinson

With her sleek bob haircut (usually with a flower placed just so), vintage fashion sense, strikingly beautiful looks and artfully customized ukulele, Janet Klein might seem at first to be a simple novelty act, a 21st-century hipster "ironically" recreating the subtly naughty looks of a fin-de-siecle French postcard. Then she opens her mouth to sing. There's no Betty Boop hiccups or Mae West-style brassiness in her charmingly original voice. And when she starts to play her ukulele, it's clear that this oft-ridiculed cousin of the guitar is neither prop nor gimmick, but a delightful and under-utilized musical instrument. Bearing an ever-expanding repertoire of, as she puts it, "obscure, lovely and naughty songs from the 1910's , 20's and 30's," Janet Klein is a musical archeologist hiding in the body of an F. Scott Fitzgerald heroine.

Columbo is an unassuming, disheveled police detective of Italian descent, whose trademarks include wearing a rumpled, beige raincoat over his suit, and smoking a cigar. He is consistently underestimated by his suspects who, while initially reassured and distracted by his circumstantial speech, become increasingly annoyed by his pestering behavior.

The rookie journalist Vivian seeks Frederick, the caretaker of the oldest cemetery in an undefined country, asking for an interview and the old man tells the story of two "costumers" and both connected by a mysterious secret. The powerful gangster Jimmie Levinson accuses his former partner Paul Pattuchi of stealing a load of cocaine and orders to kill his beloved girlfriend Clarice. Paul is found dead later in a cottage, and Jimmie and his friends and girlfriends are visited during a dinner party by Robert Downing first and then by the sadistic Mortimer and his partner Rick seeking the truth about Paul and a suitcase with a mysterious relic. The second story takes place in the Middle Ages, where the cruel David Deming and his minion Tom Brewster chase the renegade priest James Flynn in the name of the Inquisition but actually trying to force him to reveal the secret of the Eternal Heart to grant immortality.