Part character study and part thriller

The People Downstairs Are Killers follows Darren Wallace from youth to adulthood from the early sixties to the early eighties in the near north side of Des Moines, Iowa. Though a gifted student, throughout his life, he’s plagued by his insecurities, a troubled older sister, and a harsh, sometimes appearing, uncaring mother. Once he finally escapes the house that has tormented him, he finds upon his mother’s death that he has inherited it as well as the tenants that now occupy it.

Newlywed, his wife urges him to take possession with the stipulation of banking their earnings for a down payment of a place of their own. It’s when he gives his mother’s apartment to Teddie Jessup, a mentor of his and longtime resident, he gets the attention of Blue Callen, a spare but strong man in his thirties whom his mother had verbally promised said apartment to.

However, it’s not until Pearl Johnson, a voluptuous femme fatale who has had a prior relationship with Blue Callen appears and soon disappears that sends Darren and Blue on a collision course.