Posts Tagged: female private eye

Creating Delilah West: Can’t swim? Dive in Anyway

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Death is Forever by author Maxine O'Callaghan

When I began writing my first novel, I was blissfully ignorant of that sage piece of advice: Write what you know. I wasn't a cop, or a pathologist, or a special agent for the FBI. Besides a stint in the Marine Corp Reserve, I was, first, a secretary, then a stay-at-home housewife and mother who read. A lot. Mostly mysteries and suspense with an emphasis on private eye fiction. So it seemed perfectly natural to me that when one of my first short stories, A Change of Clients, appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 1974, it featured a private detective. My only concession to the write-what-you-know maxim was to make my detective a woman, because, well, I was one. It really... more

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Delilah West – Crime Fiction’s First Female Private Eye

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Death is Forever by author Maxine O'Callaghan

Bestselling author Marcia Muller, creator of the Sharon McCone mysteries, talks about her fondness for Maxine O’Callaghan’s groundbreaking private eye, Delilah West. Before dozens of fictional female private investigators took to the mean streets, Delilah West had already solved her first case, in the short story, “A Change of Clients.” Before dozens of women authors began to alter the face of a previously male-dominated subgenre, Maxine O’Callaghan introduced her engaging detective to wide audiences in the action-packed and emotionally charged novel Death is Forever. Now this impressive start to an excellent series has been re-issued by Brash Books. Readers who are already... more

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