Created by Chris Rogers
Former prosecutor turned Houston bounty hunter DIXIE FLANNIGAN is no cream puff, as she amply demonstrates in her well-received debut, 1998’s Bitch Factor. She may be only five feet two inches and 120 pounds, but Dixie proved to be rough-and-ready, no matter what, and her combination of brains, cunning and general bitchiness, already legendary in the jails and courtrooms, carried over to her new career.
And just case you think Dixie relies two heavily on the “bitch factor” to get things done, the 1999 sequel allows her to draw on the “rage factor.”
Alas, there were some rather soggy sub-plots introduced in Bitch Factor that eventually derailed this character’s potential. Perhpas Rogers should have heeded the words of fellow Texans,Archie Bell and the Drells, who said, “Tighten up!”
Fortunately, the series didn’t degenerate down to Mildly-Peeved Factor or even worse, the Overly-Melodramatic-and-Bloated-Soap-Opera-Trying-to-Pass-Itself-Off-as-Hard-boiled Factor, but 2000’s Chill Factor proved to be the third and final book in the series.
Or at least that’s what I thought. And then, in 2012, Slice of Life appeared, with Dixie hot on the trail of a troubled young runaway, and then finds herself having to deal with her family’s dirty (and bloody) secrets.
I thought it was anice return to form, but I’m with the wag on Amazon who suggested a better title would have been “Slice Factor.”
Texas born-and-bred writer Chris Rogers grew up on EC Comics and “B” horror flicks, and now keeps herself busy ghostwriting business books and memoirs, and her own novels and short stories. She’s taught mystery writing at the Rice University School of Continuing Studies, the University of Houston and in private master classes. Besides the Dixie Flannigan series, she’s published stories and essays in, among others, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Writer’s Digest.
UNDER OATH
- “The best new heroine to come along in years”
— Library Journal
NOVELS
- Bitch Factor (1998) | Buy this book
- Rage Factor (1999) | Buy this book
- Chill Factor (2000) | Buy this book
- Slice of Life (2012) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Bounty Hunters
“Not your average nine-to-five job”
