with Warren Adler
We are delighted to welcome back novelist Warren Adler to Omnimystery News.
Earlier this month we had a chance to catch up with Warren, whose first Fiona Fitzgerald mystery, American Quartet, was recently reissued in a new digital format.
We asked him to tell us a little more about the character, and he titles his guest post for us today, "The Women Behind the Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery Series".
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Photo provided courtesy of
Warren Adler
Detective Fiona Fitzgerald is an unlikely force for justice in Washington D.C's predominantly male police force. As a prominent senator's daughter and top investigator in the homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department, Fiona maneuvers between two vastly different worlds, moving quickly from opulent State galas to gritty crime scenes. Born into the elite social circles of the nation's capital, and with privileged access to what lurks behind the pristine façade of the political establishment, Fiona is determined to expose the chicanery buried under prim rose bushes and concealed within the highest echelons of the American political aristocracy.
It was the early eighties and mass media consensus on gender was undergoing a massive change. Women were on the march, and the emphasis was on upward mobility and equality on all fronts, especially in the workplace.
In the culture of literary fiction, the concept of the heroic figure was becoming "genderized;" the notion of the cop, soldier, firefighter, construction worker, and other jobs once considered male turf only, was swiftly transforming.
Although I had never tackled the mystery genre, growing in popularity at the time, my agent persuaded me to take the plunge. I lived in the Washington metropolitan area where I had been well connected with the political and social scene; I had previously served as the White House correspondent during the Korean War, was the co-owner of Washington Dossier Magazine, as well as worked as a campaign strategist to President Richard Nixon. I decided to use the police department that covered the nation's Capitol as my focal point. In casting around for a knowledgeable member of the force who could give me some insight into the inner workings of the department and their own psyche, I was lucky to find an experienced female homicide detective who happened to be no stranger to attending glittery dinner parties with a revolver tucked in her evening bag. Her name was Judy Roberts and she led me deep into the entrails of the mindset and procedure of police work.
When I first suggested that she would make a terrific character in my novel, Ms. Roberts replied, "You've got to be kidding." But, with ten years of experience with the local police force under her belt, she had done it all — chased burglars, investigated murders, witnessed one too many autopsies, and attended Ronald Reagan's inaugural with her shoulder holster strapped under her evening gown. With a little persuasion, Roberts was on board. Because I was familiar with the political and social circles of the power elite in Washington, I conceived the idea of Fiona working solely on cases involving the Washington upper crust but as seen through the lens of a woman used to straddling opposite worlds socially and politically.
The first title in the series was American Quartet, a New York Times Notable Crime Book. A string of inexplicable murders has Fiona charging through the shadows of a mysterious conspiracy. Her reputation and career blunder, however, through an investigation with no leads. At the brink of her professional demise, an encounter with the eccentric yet charismatic Thaddeus Remington III at his museum-like mansion sends Fiona hurtling through a whirlwind of clues. Where once the desperate detective rummaged through traceless footsteps of a triple murderer, the key to solving her case is now whispered to her from the bloodstained graves of fallen Presidents.
In the following books, American Sextet, Death of a Washington Madame, The Witch of Watergate, Senator Love, Immaculate Deception, The Ties that Bind, and Washington Masquerade, Detective Fiona Fitzgerald continues to be ensconced in the heady precincts of elite Washington with each new predicament more riddled than the former. The ninth and newest addition to the series, Red Herring, is slated to be released this year.
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Warren Adler is an author, playwright, poet, and essayist. With over 40 years of an insider's view of the exclusive domain of the nation's political elite, Adler writes with a unique insight and command rendering him an invaluable voice in the evolving American experience, and a trademark in American literature.
For more information about the author, please visit website at WarrenAdler.com or find on Facebook and Twitter.
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American Quartet
Warren Adler
A Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery
Detective Fiona Fitzgerald is an unlikely force for justice in Washington D.C.'s predominantly male police force. As a Senator's daughter and top investigator in the homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department, Fiona maneuvers between two vastly different worlds, moving quickly from opulent State galas to gritty crime scenes. Born into the elite social circles of the nation's capital, and armed with intimate knowledge of the true face of the political establishment, Fiona is determined to expose the chicanery concealed within the highest echelons of the American political aristocracy.
When a string of inexplicable murders rocks the hallowed streets of central D.C., Fiona finds herself charging through shadows of a mysterious conspiracy. Faced with an investigation with no leads and a rising body count, Fiona's reputation as top investigator of the Miami Division is called into question.
At the brink of professional ruin, an encounter with the eccentric yet charismatic Thaddeus Remington III at his museum-like mansion sends Fiona hurtling headlong through a whirlwind of clues. Where once the desperate detective blundered through traceless footsteps of a triple murderer, the answers to her case now seem to be whispered from bloodstained graves of fallen Presidents. Fiona stands ready, her finger on the trigger, as an assassination plot decades in the making is about to change history forever.
