Filed under, Workplaces Worse Than Yours:

This spring, two new books--The Fortune Hunter by Suzy Spencer (St. Martin's) and She Wanted It All by Kathryn Casey (Avon, Apr.)--examine the murder of Stephen Beard, a 72-year-old former television executive, by Tracey Tarlton, who at the time was the general manager of BookPeople in Austin, Tex.

It was not exactly a bookish murder: on October 2, 1999, Tarlton, who had a history of depression and drug use, fired a single blast from a 20-gauge shotgun at Beard while he lay in bed. The court found that she had been coerced into shooting the millionaire by Beard's 37-year-old wife, Celeste. Tarlton and Celeste had become lovers after the two met at a local psychiatric hospital.

While Beard languished in the hospital, where he died four months after the shooting, and prior to her arrest, Tarlton continued to work at the store as general manager. BookPeople owner Steve Bercu called the environment "like walking on eggshells." Some employees were a little frightened of Tarlton and remember her combative relationship with BookPeople's marketing director at the time, Jeremy Ellis. One incident ended with Tarlton threatening Ellis, "If you do that again, I'll kill you."

Either way, the article goes on to note that Suzy Spencer's Fortune Hunter recently had its official launch party at Austin's BookPeople and also borrowed its theme from the "now-infamous party thrown by Tarlton and Beard for BookPeople employees in the summer of 1999." That party's theme? "Fashion Victims."