Created by M.F. Beal "To be a woman is to be a revolutionary" — Kat Talk about firsts. The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing tagged M.F. Beal's ground-breaking 1977 novel, Angel Dance as the first "self consciously feminist mystery," while it's generally considered to be the first PI novel to feature a lesbian as the … Continue reading Kat Guerrera
Tag: Politics
Politics Schmolitics
I'm just tryna hold it steady... Politics is the dog turd on everybody's sidewalk, and eventually even nice eyes step into it accidentally, but these eyes make political trouble their business, working as fixers and troubleshooters, covering up or looking for scandals... Robert Miles by David H. Everson Joe DeMarco by Mike Lawson Very preliminary … Continue reading Politics Schmolitics
Robert Miles
Created by David Everson (1941-99) "My name is Robert Miles and I'm a private eye with a difference. My mean streets are the corridors of power in the Illinois capitol. Call what I do for the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives opposition research." Whatever you call it, author David Everson's political savvy makes … Continue reading Robert Miles
Brian Petersen (aka “The D.C. Man”)
Created by James P. Cody Pseudonym of Peter T. Rohrbach (1926--) Another rescue from Lee Goldberg's Brash Books resurrects James P. Cody's quartet of gritty, action-packed  Men's Adventure paperbacks from the mid-seventies, originally published by Berkley Medallion. BRIAN PETERSEN, tagged as "The D.C. MAN" on the covers, was a former football player and  military intelligence … Continue reading Brian Petersen (aka “The D.C. Man”)
Riley Kovachs
Created by Gordon DeMarco(1944-95) This series reads like Sam Spade, but with Hammett’s political anger jammed right in your face. And I mean right in your face. If you're leaning to the left and just biding time, waiting for the revolution, RILEY KOVACHS is worth checking out. He works the politically-charged mean streets of Hammett's city … Continue reading Riley Kovachs
Pepe Carvalho
Created by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (1939 - 2003) "Do you realise that we private eyes are the barometers of established morality? I tell you society is rotten. It doesn't believe in anything," declares Spanish private eye PEPE CARVALHO to his friend, Biscuter, in Southern Seas (1979). Pepe is a fat and cynical eye, who may … Continue reading Pepe Carvalho
We’re Living In a Political World
Eyes Left Crime fiction, it's been argued, is about maintaining the status quo, and ensuring that those with the power continue to keep it--that crime is an anomaly, and that once it's rooted out, order is restored and all is right in the world. It therefore must have a conservative agenda. But more than one … Continue reading We’re Living In a Political World
We’re Livin’ In a Political World: The Bookshelf
Books About (American) Politics & Detective Fiction Listed chronologically: Madden, David, ed., Tough Guy Writers of the Thirties | Buy this book Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press: 1968. Simply a pivotal, landmark work, one of the first to take an in-depth look at the genre, delving into political and cultural issues. Includes Herbert Ruhm's "Raymond … Continue reading We’re Livin’ In a Political World: The Bookshelf
David DiAngelo
Created by Tim Broderick "The new economy is all about links. Don't have enough time to do that special task? I do. And all you have to do is link up..." DAVID DiANGELO earns his living doing odd jobs, sometimes extremely odd, in Tim Broderick's smart, quirky, ground-breaking web comic, the aptly-titled Odd Jobs, which ran … Continue reading David DiAngelo
Tom Bethany
Created by Jerome Doolittle (1933-2023) "That particular spring day, fooling around in the library, I was interested in why good intentions so often end up making things worse than they were before. consequently I was taking notes on a great reform called the Federal Electyion Act of 1971, which gave us political action committees. Before … Continue reading Tom Bethany