The characters in Playing Murder are all Caucasians living in a Yankee community. Racial minorities are totally absent. What social distinctions there are concern economic class. The Parkers feel the loss of social status that their son's thievery has caused in New Jersey, so they flee home and jobs to gain a fresh start. This humiliation causes Anna to resent her brother, and her parents to withdraw into silence.

Their buying a restaurant suggests that they will now have to work with their hands more than with their minds, even though Mr. Parker is a teacher and Mrs. Parker a writer of mystery novels. However, by the end of the novel the family is communicating more fully and candidly because of the crisis they have faced and overcome.

The people they encounter in Maine are primarily middle class, although one character, Watson, has started a blue-collar...