Mon 15 Jan 2007
I don’t know the true protocol for this, having only been a blogger for just under three weeks, but I’d like to re-post some of the comments that I’ve received on my checklist of Real Estate Detectives. If I don’t do it this way, I have a feeling that they’ll fall through the cracks, and people who’d enjoy reading them might not otherwise. (From my own personal experience, I read the comments when I read someone’s blog entry, but I never go back and see if anyone’s commented later.)
First, from author Lou Allin:

My reply:
Then from author Nina Wright:
My humorous series is set in Magnet Springs, Michigan, a fictional tourist town across the Lake from Chicago. In addition to a cast of artistic and eccentric regulars, Whiskey encounters affluent vacationers who pack their dark sides when they leave home.
Another perk of the Realtor protagonist is her legitimate excuse to snoop (a little). Since I’m personally fascinated by architecture and home design, one of the promises I make to my readers is that Whiskey will find herself inside at least one uniquely fascinating property per book. I enjoy concocting those details as much as the gourmet mystery writers probably savor their recipes.

My reply, which is now the last one posted, but it also contains a short response from Lou Allin:
I believe that you’ve pointed out something essential in each of your posts. The biggest problem in maintaining an amateur detective as a continuing character is how do you (believably) make sure that your detective keeps coming across murders to solve?
At first I was surprised at the large number of realtor-sleuths that turned up. Now I’m wondering why there aren’t more of them!
>>> Lou’s email reply to me:
Hi, Steve
One cliche I avoid (selective memory privilege) is having people comment to the sleuth, “Oh so you’re the one who keeps finding bodies. Any luck lately?” or some such. We all know that even police detectives don’t normally work on murder after murder (well, maybe in New Orleans or L.A.).
If readers want amateur sleuth mysteries, they’ll agree with the willing suspension of disbelief.
Lou
January 15th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I posted some time back about amateur sleuths in unusual professions: http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/2006/10/eh-whats-up-geneticistbioethicistcompu.html I’ve already added a stripper-sleuth to that list, and now I can add real estate agent sleuths as well.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
January 15th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Hi Peter,
I couldn’t find the stripper-sleuth by following the link you included. It must have come up sometime later on your blog. But you use the singular in describing her, and there are at least two that I can think of, starting with Gypsy Rose Lee in the 1940s. Fairly recently there was Sierra Lavotini in the “Strip” books by Nancy Bartholomew.
There may be others, including — who knows? — a male stripper sleuth? Perhaps in the romance section of Borders?
–Steve
January 15th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Peter’s reply, moved from a previous blog entry. It really belongs here.
>> Someone did mention Gypsy Rose Lee. But I had in mind Leigh Redhead’s Simone Kirsch, whom I found out about through some Australian correspondents and whom I discuss at http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/2007/01/titillating-titles.html
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
>>>> It looks as though Simone Kirsch (aka Vivien Leigh on stage) is still an Australian phenomenon. No books by Leigh Redhead come up on Amazon to suggest otherwise.
I would suppose — to get back to one of my threads of thought, which have somehow come dishevelled and unravelled — that being a stripper is a good if not excellent way for an amateur detective to keep on finding cases of murder to solve? –Steve
January 15th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
She is as yet unavailable in the U.S. The lack of overseas availability of Australian crime fiction has been a recurring them on my blog. I have tried to get around it by ordering books from Australia and New Zealand. This has given me respect for the admirable postal services in both countries.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/