Zelmare Roulette

A Depression-era escaped convict, all silk gloves and knives, Zelmare blows into Kansas City with her partner Swanee to collect on old debts and old grudges. She talks in a slinky drawl, treats danger like a party, and moves through the world as if the rules were written for other people.

Karen Aldridge plays her with a dancer's looseness and a predator's stillness underneath, so every scene has two speeds running at once. The writing gives Zelmare wit sharp enough to cut and a code of loyalty that never softens into sentiment, which makes her fun to watch and impossible to relax around.