Twist Endings: Can You Figure Them Out?

Do you enjoy suspense, mysteries and thrillers? If so, please check out my two newest releases, Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave. Now, on to today's subject matter. Do you enjoy twist endings? I love them because they always come as a complete surprise to me!

I'm hopeless when it comes to figuring out the twist ending of a movie, but my husband can tell me what it is less than halfway through. "He's in on the scheme." "He faked his death." "She has a split personality." Sometimes he's wrong, but most of the time he's on the right track or nailed it completely.

I suppose our brains work differently.  I enjoy seeing the story unfold. I love being surprised, shocked and scared. I'm too busy being entertained to think about unraveling the plot. Also, I'm vulnerable and tend to take things at face value.

In Derailed, Jennifer Anniston pays for Clive Owens's train fare near the beginning of the movie. My husband started suspecting something right then. Not me! If I'd had an extra $9.00 and someone (like a stranger who didn't look suspicious) had forgotten his wallet, I would've been a good Samaritan and helped him out, too!

When the twist is finally disclosed, I'll rethink my way through the movie to make sure the screenplay was consistent and the conclusion realistic. And sometimes, once armed with the knowledge of the ending, I'll watch the DVD all over again.  Then I'll see information I missed the first time around, and understand little things I paid no attention to before.  Shutter Island, The Sixth Sense and The Others all have to be watched more than once.

Despite my inability to figure out the twist, these types of movies are my favorites! Nothing like the element of surprise.

If you love a good twist ending, be sure to rent these if you haven't already seen them:  The Prestige, Shutter Island, Derailed, The Secret Window, The Illusionist, The Sixth Sense and The Others.

Can you figure out the twist before a movie ends? What are some of your favorites (books or movies) that have twist endings?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week! 

Goodbye, Pete Rose!

I've been dealing with some life issues as of late and the blog has fallen by the wayside. I'm back today to reminisce about the late Pete Rose, also known by the nickname Charlie Hustle, who died on September 30. I'm a Cincinnati native and as a little girl, I had a crush on him. Don't ask me why, I just did. Back in the day, The Big Red Machine was a force to be reckoned with. I am not a sports fan by any means, but I loved watching the Reds play so we could see Pete slide onto the bases!

I must digress for a moment and do a little shameless self-promotion. I did attend a few baseball games at Cincinnati's River Front Stadium back in the 1970s with my parents, and beer was a big seller at those games. Cincinnati has a strong German heritage and the city is known for its beers. With that said, please be sure to check out my new mystery Growler to Grave (where Cincinnati's beer brewers play a role), as well as its prequal Cad to Cadaver. 

So back to Pete Rose. How did he become known as Charlie Hustle? Here's the answer from The Cincinnati Enquirer:

According to the 2024 book "Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball" by Keith O'Brien, one of the first links to Rose and "hustle" in print came from Earl Lawson, a sports reporter for the Cincinnati Post, who in 1963 praised Rose's no-holds-barred playing style by writing, "Hustle is young Pete's middle name."

But the christening of Rose as "Charlie Hustle" was anything but complimentary. In a spring training game against New York that year, Rose bunted for a single, much to the amusement of Yankee's great Mickey Mantle and teammate Whitey Ford. From O'Brien's book:

Mantle and Ford ... intended the name to be an insult. They were laughing at Pete. They thought he was working too hard. But Pete refused to see it that way. He knew that hustling was the secret to his success, the key to every room he would ever enter. He happily wore the name. “The Mick gave it to me,” Pete bragged that summer. “He and Ford,” he crowed. “Mantle said to me, ‘Hey, Charlie Hustle.’ ” Pete told the press it was a compliment.

There's your trivia for the day! Any of this new to you? For the complete article click here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

How Algiers Inspired Casablanca

I absolutely love old movies, and not long ago I watched Algiers. I'd read about it, and learned a few facts, such as the line "Come wiz me to ze casbah," wasn't even in the film, and even though Charles Boyer wanted Heddy Lamarr to star alongside him after meeting her at a party, he didn't realize she couldn't act. That subsequently caused some stress during filming. Also, the character Pepe le Moko inspired Looney Tunes Pepe Le Pew.

What I didn't realize is that Algiers, though not a big hit, inspired Casablanca, one of the greatest movies ever made, and one of my all-time favorites! It was even developed with Heddy Lamarr in mind for the lead. She was an otherworldly beauty, but Ingrid Bergman, the earthly beauty who eventually played the part was a brilliant actress. I can't imagine Casablanca without Ingrid Bergman or Humphrey Bogart!

Sidenote on Heddy Lamarr:  Though she was a great beauty who became a superstar, she wasn't a great actress and didn't exude personality from the screen. However, she was highly intelligent and is credited with developing Bluetooth technology! (How Hollywood Star Hedy Lamarr Invented the Tech Behind WiFi)

Algiers centers around French thief Pepe le Moko on the run from the French authorities. Perhaps if my sleuths Tracy Black and Adam Slade had been around, they could have captured him long before the French officials arrived. Check out their Black OOps Mystery adventures Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave! 

Now, let's take a look at Casablanca Never Would Have Happened Without This Forgotten 1938 Movie, an article from Screen Rant:

In 1938, the drama movie Algiers was released. Directed by John Cromwell, Algiers follows Pepe le Moko (Charles Boyer), a thief who after his last great heist escaped from France to Algeria. Pepe became a resident and leader of the Casbah of Algiers, and while French officials arrived to capture him, Pepe was starting to feel trapped in his prison-like stronghold. The feeling got stronger after meeting Gaby (Hedy Lamarr), a beautiful woman visiting from France, but his love for her sparked the jealousy of his Algerian mistress, Ines (Sigrid Gurie).

Algiers was Lamarr’s American debut, and it received four nominations at the Academy Awards (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography), but it’s most notable for inspiring Casablanca. Although Algiers wasn’t a big hit, the studio liked the idea and wanted to give the concept another try, hence the narrative and thematic similarities between Algiers and Casablanca. The latter was reportedly named in reference to the former, and it was written specifically for Hedy Lamarr to star. However, as Lamarr was under contract with MGM, the studio refused to release her, and Ingrid Bergman was cast in the lead role.

Both Algiers and Casablanca have love triangles, at least one character on the run, and cynical lead male characters thanks to Pepe le Moko and Rick Blaine. Pepe and Rick were also reminded of what they used to have and no longer can through their romances with Gaby and Ilsa, respectively, and both women were already in relationships with other men – Gaby had a fiancé, while Ilsa was married to Laszlo, who she thought had died when she met Rick.

Thanks to Casablanca being inspired by Algiers, it also owes everything it is and will be to the 1937 French movie Pépé le Moko. Directed by Julien Duvivier and based on the novel of the same name by Henri La Barthe, Pépé le Moko is an example of the French movement of poetic realism from the 1930s, and it was not only remade as Algiers, but it got a second remake in 1948 as Casbah, a film noir musical starring Yvonne De Carlo, Tony Martin, Märta Torén, and Peter Lorre (who also appeared in Casablanca as Signor Ugarte). The character of Pépé le Moko also inspired the Looney Tunes character Pepé Le Pew, who was introduced in 1945.

While Pépé le Moko is one of the most influential French films in history, and Casablanca one of the greatest films ever made (and both inspiring other movies and characters), Algiers has been mostly forgotten. Even though Algiers was recognized by the Academy and other organizations, its only legacies are introducing Hedy Lamarr to the American audience and making Casablanca happen.

Have you ever seen Casablanca or Algiers? Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend! 

Hawaii Five-O

Thought I'd travel back in time today and feature another one of my favorite cop shows from yesteryear. 

Perhaps this was another inspiration for me to write my new detective series, Black OOps. Please check out Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave, written under my pen name Marissa Allen.

Hawaii Five-O was a fun show, although I don't remember enjoying it quite as much as Mannix or The Man From Uncle. However, it was truly a show with staying power! I didn't realize how long it aired until I looked it up to prepare this post. Hawaii Five-O aired from 1968 to 1980, twelve years!

A new version of the show aired in 2010 and ran for three seasons. I watched one episode for about five minutes. To me, the new version just couldn't compare with the original.

If you're not old enough to remember Hawaii Five-O, here's the lowdown from Wikipedia:

Jack Lord portrayed Detective Lieutenant Steve McGarrett, the head of a special state police task force which was based on an actual unit that existed under martial law in the 1940s.

Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett

For 12 seasons, McGarrett and his team hounded international secret agents, criminals, and organized crime syndicates plaguing the Hawaiian Islands. With the aid of District Attorney and later Hawaii's Attorney General John Manicote, McGarrett was successful in sending most of his enemies to prison... Most episodes of Hawaii Five-O ended with the arrest of criminals and McGarrett snapping, "Book 'em."... In many episodes, this was directed to

Danny Williams and became McGarrett's catchphrase, "Book 'em, Danno." 
The Five-O team consisted of three to five members...and was portrayed as occupying a suite of offices in the Iolani Palace... Five-O lacked its own radio network, necessitating frequent requests by McGarrett to the Honolulu Police Department dispatchers, "Patch me through to Danno." McGarrett's tousled yet immaculate hairstyle, as well as his proclivity for wearing a dark suit and tie on all possible occasions...rapidly entered popular culture. While the other members of Five-O also "dressed mainland" much of the time, they also often wore local styles, such as the ubiquitous "Aloha shirt."

In many episodes...McGarrett was drawn into the world of international espionage and national intelligence. McGarrett's nemesis was a rogue intelligence officer of the People's Republic of China named Wo Fat. The Communist rogue agent was played by veteran actor Khigh Dheigh. The show's final episode in 1980 was titled "Woe to Wo Fat," in which McGarrett finally saw his foe Wo go to jail.

This television show's action and straightforward story-telling left little time for personal stories involving wives or girlfriends... Occasionally, a show would flash back to McGarrett's younger years or to a romantic figure. The viewer was left with the impression that McGarrett, at that point in his life...was wedded to the police force and to crime-fighting. 

Do you remember the original Hawaii Five-O? Thanks for visiting and have a great week! 

Film Noir

Time for a little more shameless self-promotion! If you love a mystery--and a good laugh--check out my new Black OOps Detective Mysteries, Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave. 

Now, if you love film noir, read on!

I love old movies and the older, the better. I'm particularly fond of the film noir classics of the 1940s.

According to Ephraim Katz's Film Encyclopedia, the term "film noir" was coined by French critics to describe motion pictures characterized by a "dark somber tone and cynical, pessimistic mood." It literally means "dark film."

The film noir Hollywood pictures of the 40s and 50s portrayed the dark, sinister underworld of crime and corruption. And both heroes and villains were cynical loners, insecure and disillusioned by life's circumstances, bound to the past, and unsure of the future.

Several scenes are shot at night, and dingy realism is portrayed through the interior and exterior set designs. There's nothing glamorous about these movies (aside from the leading lady's wardrobe), but the stories are extremely compelling, with intrigue, suspense and lots and lots of plot twists.

Two of my favorite film noir pictures star beautiful Rita Hayworth. Although Lady from Shanghai is hard to follow (you'll have to watch it more than once), it keeps you wondering what's going to happen next. Even if it seems too weird (or perhaps, thought provoking, since it's Orson Welles), it's worth watching just for the ending. That's when Rita's character is shot in the house of mirrors and then lay dying in broken glass (she deserves it).

My other favorite is Gilda, which, for film noir, has a relatively happy ending. In this film, Rita is glamour personified! As the hot and steamy Gilda, a woman with a questionable past, her dialog to leading man Glen Ford is topnotch. Her words actually had me saying "ouch" a few times for the poor guy!

Do you enjoy old movies too?  If so, what are some of your favorites?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week! 

Morbid Curiosity or Fascinating Character Study

"I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect--in terror."  Edgar Allan Poe

Call me sick, call me twisted, but I seem to have a morbid curiosity regarding true crime.  I'm fascinated by what drives people to do such things.  And a great way to develop fictional bad guys is by reading factual criminal accounts and watching televised reenactments.

And this provides a place for me to do a little shameless self-promotion. My new Black OOps Mystery series is now available. Please checkout books one and two, Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave. 

Now back to business.

A tragic local story was in the news several years ago that involved a 17-year-old young man who strangled his 10-year-old brother.  

During the courtroom proceedings the prosecution, as well as the public, displayed outrage because the young man showed no remorse, and never apologized for what he'd done.  In response, he did make an apology.  But the statement was chilling to hear as the young man read it with the same emotion he'd use to read a book report. 

Although the youth never mentioned his sibling by name, he did say he was sorry for the murder and that he'd never forget how much his little brother meant to him and everyone else. (Really???)  Another unsettling aspect of this apology was that he spoke of how he planned to spend his time in prison (receiving his GED, taking college courses and working toward a degree), and when released, he'd go back to work at the restaurant he'd previously been employed by before the murder.  (Really???)

The prosecution didn't buy the apology, and neither did the public.  The young man received life without parole, because he was only 17 when the murder was committed.  What I learned after the trial was that the young man said he did it because he wanted to see what it would feel like to kill someone.  He also mentioned that he'd fantasized about committing murder since age 13.  I was flabbergasted upon hearing this!  

When I brought the case up to my husband, he said, "I don't want to talk about it, I can't even think about it!  How can you?"

Perhaps I'm just sick and twisted.  But this case reminds me of another one; that of Leopold and Loeb.  I first became acquainted with this infamous case when I was 16, working at the library during summer break.  One of the reference books kept in the work room was called The Encyclopedia of Murder.  I tried to get to work early everyday so I could read it.  (Okay, pretty twisted, I know.) 

Maybe this is when I realized I had a morbid curiosity about true crime.  I'm not interested in horror movies, and scary books (sorry Stephen King) frighten me too much!  True crime, however, fascinates me.

If you're not familiar with Leopold and Loeb, I've provided a thumbnail summary below.  But to learn more, click here.

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were two wealthy University of Chicago college students who murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924.  They were eventually sentenced to life in prison, and this case has inspired works of fiction, film and theater including Rope, a play by Patrick Hamilton, and a film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock.

Both men were exceptionally intelligent.  Leopold was 19, and Loeb 18 at the time of the murder, and they believed themselves to be Nietzchean supermen, capable of committing the perfect crime.  "A superman," Leopold had written, "is on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men.  He is not liable for anything he may do."

The duo (residents of Kenwood, a wealthy Jewish suburb of Chicago at the time) spent seven months planning an elaborate kidnap and murder scheme of a neighbor, and distant relative of Loeb's.  They even planned on a way of receiving ransom money without getting caught.  Money wasn't something they needed, as their families were wealthy and provided them plenty.

The boy was kidnapped, murdered and his body disposed of.  But when the corpse was discovered, also found at the scene was a pair of eyeglasses.  Expensive ones, with a unique hinge mechanism, only purchased by three people in the Chicago area, one of whom was Nathan Leopold.  So much for the perfect crime!

Clarence Darrow was hired by Loeb's family and the trial soon became known as  "The Trial of the Century."  It was later revealed that the men were driven by the "thrill of the kill," as well as to prove that they could commit the perfect crime.

Is it just me, or do you have a morbid curiosity, too?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

I love detective shows and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was one of my favorites when I was a kid. As a six-year-old, I had a desperate crush on blond spy David McCallum, who played Russian Illya Kuryakin, to Robert Vaughn's American Napoleon Solo.

The women in that series were only eye candy, but then there was The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., starring Stephanie Powers, as Agent April Dancer. I vaguely remember that show, but it didn't last long. Critics claimed Powers was ill-suited for the role, a trifle limited on acting ability, and that she came across as a timid agent. 

Too bad for The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. It was cancelled after only one season. Off topic here, but why was a female agent called a girl when she was a grown woman? I digress... 

Stephanie Powers is much better remembered from Hart to Hart, as amateur sleuth Jennifer Hart, who solved crimes along with her jet setting husband Jonathan Hart, played by Robert Wagner. 

If you enjoy a crime solving duo with a feisty heroin and a strong silent guy who aren't  jet-setters, but a couple looking for their next paying gig, please check out my RomCozy Black OOps Detective Mysteries, Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave. 

Now, back to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. If you're not familiar with the series, here's the gist from Wikipedia:

The series centered on a two-man troubleshooting team working for U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement): American Napoleon Solo, and Georgian (Georgia-USSR) Illya Kuryakin.

U.N.C.L.E.'s adversary was T.H.R.U.S.H.... The original series never divulged what T.H.R.U.S.H. represented, but in several U.N.C.L.E. novels by David McDaniel, it is the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity, described as founded by Col. Sebastian Moran after the death of Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Final Problem."

T.H.R.U.S.H.'s aim was to conquer the world. Napoleon Solo said, in "The Green Opal Affair", "T.H.R.U.S.H. believes in the two-party system — the masters and the slaves," and in the pilot episode ("The Vulcan Affair"), T.H.R.U.S.H. "kills people the way people kill flies — a reflex action — a flick of the wrist." So dangerous was T.H.R.U.S.H. that governments — even those ideologically opposed, such as the United States and the Soviet Union — had cooperated in forming and operating the U.N.C.L.E. organization. Similarly, when Solo and Kuryakin held opposing political views, the friction between them in the story was held to a minimum.

 The show was quite fun to watch with all the espionage and intrigue! And there was just enough humor to lighten the mood.

Were you a fan of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Mannix

I just finished my second Tracy Black Black OOps Detective Mystery Growler to Grave. Please check it out, along with the first book in the series, Cad to Cadaver. 

While I worked on these mysteries, I thought about one of my favorite detective shows from long ago, Mannix. I loved that series! It starred Mike Conners as private investigator Joe Mannix, and Gail Fisher, who played his trusty secretary Peggy Fair. 

Gail Fisher was one of the first black women to have a substantive part in an American TV series, and for her role in Mannix, she won two Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award. Mannix aired from 1967-1975, and perhaps one of the reasons I enjoyed watching it was because of Gail Fisher. I was just a kid back then, and there weren't too many women who looked like me on television.

If you're not familiar with the series, here's some information from Wikipedia:

Mannix worked on his own with the assistance of his loyal secretary Peggy Fair, a police officer's widow played by Gail Fisher. He also has assistance from the L.A. police department, the two most prominent officers being Lieutenant Art Malcolm (portrayed by Ward Wood) and Lieutenant Adam Tobias (portrayed by Robert Reed). Other police contacts were Lieutenant George Kramer (Larry Linville), who had been the partner of Peggy's late husband, and Lieutenant Dan Ives (Jack Ging).

While Mannix was not generally known as a show that explored socially relevant topics, several episodes had topical themes, starting in Season Two. In Season Two alone, there were episodes featuring compulsive gambling, deaf and blind characters that were instrumental in solving cases in spite of their physical limitations, and episodes that focused on racism against blacks and Hispanics. Season Six had an episode focusing on the effects the Vietnam War had on returning veterans, including the effects of PTSD.

Joseph R. "Joe" Mannix is a regular guy, without pretense, who has a store of proverbs to rely upon in conversation. What demons he has mostly come from having fought in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, where he was initially listed as MIA while he was a prisoner of war in a brutal POW camp until he escaped. Unfortunately, over the length of the series, a sizable percentage of his old Army comrades turn out to have homicidal impulses against him, as did his fellow running back from his college football days. 

During the series, it is also revealed that Mannix worked as a mercenary in Latin America. Like the actor who plays him, Mannix is of Armenian descent. Mannix was shown to speak fluent Armenian during the series, as well as conversational Spanish. Mannix is notable for taking a lot of physical punishment. During the course of the series he is shot and wounded over a dozen separate times, or is knocked unconscious around 55 times. 

Mannix frequently took brutal beatings to the abdomen; some of these went on quite a long time, particularly by the television standards of the era. Whenever Mannix gets into one of his convertibles he can expect to be shot at from another car, run off the road by another car, or find his vehicle sabotaged. Nevertheless he keeps his cool and perseveres until his antagonists are brought down. 

The excitement was non-stop! Did you watch Mannix and enjoy it as much as I did?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!  

Homicide Hunter

Do you love mysteries? Maybe with some comedy and romance thrown into the mix to take the edge off of murder? If so, please check out my new mystery series Black OOps. It really is OOps not Ops. Find Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave, written under my pen name Marissa Allen, on Amazon. 

My mysteries are on the lighter side, but I do enjoy reading about and watching true crime, so I'm a big fan of Homicide Hunter.

Homicide Hunter Joe Kenda

I discovered this series several years ago when visiting my in-laws. It's a crime documentary television series that aired on the Investigation Discovery channel for nine seasons with a total of 144 episodes. 

The series showcases the career of retired Colorado Springs, Colorado, police department detective Joe Kenda.

I find what drives people to commit violent crimes to be pretty fascinating.  This also helps me when crafting a story. As a writer I can better understand the psychology of the criminal mind.

If you're not at all familiar with the show Homicide Hunter, here's an article about it and star Joe Kenda from The Columbus Dispatch (by way of McClatchy-Tribune News Service) by Luaine Lee. 

Retired homicide detective Joe Kenda is an unlikely TV star.

With straight gray hair, a hounded look in his eyes and a minimalist way of speaking, he probably wouldn’t succeed at a casting call.

Yet he stars on Investigation Discovery’s Homicide Hunter, which began a new season this month.

Kenda narrates re-enactments of the crimes he covered from his years on the police force in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“When I arrested somebody, I’d have a gun in one hand and a badge in the other,” he said. “I say very quietly: ‘My name is Kenda. I’m with the police department, and you’re under arrest for murder. If you don’t do what I say, I’m going to kill you right here and right now.’”

Kenda spent 19 years on the force, working his way up from patrolman to commander of the major-crime unit at the time of his retirement at age 52.

There was no magic, he said, to his solving 92 percent of assault cases.

“I’m a student of human nature. People do stupid things; they do. And if you watch them and observe them and talk to them and deal with them — hundreds of different people — you become a student of what they do. And that’s all this work is.”

Kenda said he could sense when he was being told the truth — or just a story.

“You know when you’re getting lied to and when you’re not, based on what ... (people) are telling you, because you know what people do. Even though this person believes he’s very different, he’s very much the same.”

Kenda didn’t envision doing police work. He and his wife of 45 years, Kathy, met at college in their native Pittsburgh, where he tried for a time to work for his dad’s trucking business. They had two children, a boy and a girl, and struggled financially.

Finally, he said, his wife gave him an ultimatum.

“I couldn’t make ends meet, and I’m really good at making ends meet,” said Kathy Kenda, a nurse. “If he wasn’t working, he was with the boys, golfing and stuff, and I was stuck with the two kids. So he came home, and I was drunk one night, and I said: ‘This has got to change. I never see you. You never see the kids.’

“He said, ‘OK, I’ve always wanted to be a policeman.’”

So he applied and was accepted on the force.

Kenda’s brief official appearances on television in Colorado are what prompted producer Patrick Bryant’s idea for Homicide Hunter.

When his query letter arrived, however, Kenda ignored it.

His wife insisted that he reply.

When he arrived for the tryout, Bryant instructed Kenda to talk to the camera about murder.

“So I did, for about an hour — whatever came into my head. I reached what I thought was a natural stopping place, and I stood up and said, ‘Is that what you had in mind?’

“Everybody’s standing there with their mouths open. And I’m thinking, ‘Well, this didn’t go well.’ Nobody said a word. I said, ‘Let me ask you again: Is that what you had in mind?’ ‘Oh, yeah.’ And here we are.”

I loved this show, and if you love true crime and learning about what makes people tick, this is definitely a program for you!

Have you ever seen Homicide Hunter? And please give my Black OOps Series a try if you like mysteries. Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Shameless Self-Promotion, Plus A History of Private Investigators

My new Black OOps Detective Mystery series was just launched and I had an absolute blast writing it! Since these Rom/Cozy mysteries are a departure from my usual historical fiction, I used the pen name Marissa Allen (www.amazon.com/author/marissa_allen), my maiden name and my sister's nickname for me.

Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave feature ex-FBI agent turned detective Tracy Black of Black Ops Detective Agency, and her partner (and romantic interest) ex-Navy SEAL and all-around tough guy Adam Slade. Join them in a series of crime solving adventures that will keep you laughing! 

I've always been fascinated by the world of private eyes, which is probably why I decided to write a mystery series. But I didn't know anything about the history of the profession. So after a little shameless self-promotion, Take a look at this article from North American Investigations at pvteyes.com: 

It should come as no surprise that the history of private investigation is an intriguing and colorful tale that dates all the way back to ancient Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations.

The first mention of espionage is even recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible in the Book of Numbers, when God told Moses to send some men to spy on Canaan. These twelve spies were the leaders of their respective ancestral tribes and were sent ahead by Moses to explore Canaan during the Jews’ long trek from Egypt to the Promised Land.

The Birth of the Private Investigation Agency

As a craft, private investigation has existed for thousands of years, for as long as people have required it. The first known private detective agency, however, was founded in 1833 by a man named Eugène François Vidocq, a French soldier, privateer, and criminal. Le bureau des renseignments, or the Office of Intelligence as it was called, was staffed by men of similarly patchy backgrounds with law enforcement. Most of these men were ex-convicts and, as a result, official law enforcement attempted to shut the operation down several times,

In 1842, Vidocq was arrested on charges of unlawful imprisonment and for accepting money under false pretenses after solving an embezzlement case. He suspected a set-up but was still sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and a 3,000 franc fine. The Court of Appeals later released him.

Vidocq was the one who introduced record-keeping, criminology, and ballistics to the field of criminal investigation. He pioneered the practice of creating plaster casts of shoe prints and is also the inventor of indelible ink and unalterable bond paper.

To this day, some aspects of his method of anthropometrics – the study of the human body and its movement – is still in use by seasoned private investigators and the French police. He was also a known philanthropist who claimed to never have informed on anyone who had stolen due to a great need.

Evolution of Private Investigators

The private investigation industry came into existence as a response to a specific need: in the olden days, clients went to private investigators with the expectation that they would do work and act as the police in matters where traditional and official law enforcement were ill-equipped or simply unwilling to do.

They were mostly employed by wealthy owners who effectively utilized and deployed them to resolve labor disputes. Their primary function was to control workers and keep the peace, especially those who had been inspired by the French Revolution. They also did mercenary work, as well as acted as private security.

Private Eyes in the United States

Meanwhile, in the United States, a man named Allan Pinkerton was making a name for himself as a criminal detective. After informing on a band of counterfeiters to the local sheriff of his town, he was appointed in 1849 as the first police detective in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.

A year after that, he partnered with a Chicago lawyer named Edward Rucker and formed the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, a company that continues to exist today under the name Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations. It is believed that the term “private eye” originated from Pinkerton’s choice of business insignia: a wide open eye with the caption “We never sleep”.

During the Civil War, Pinkerton became the head of the Union Intelligence Service – the predecessor of the United States Secret Service – and managed to successfully foil an assassination plot targeting Abraham Lincoln. He and his men often took on undercover jobs posing as members of the Confederate army and sympathizers in order to acquire military intelligence.

Today, private investigators fulfill an important role in society. Their services have become invaluable in everything from assisting crime investigations to finding missing persons. With the continuing advancement of technology, private investigation services are continually evolving to serve the public much better ways than ever.

That's your trivia for the day! Did you learn something new? Thanks for visiting and have a great week! Also, please check out Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave!

Black OOps: A Fun Summer Mystery Series

If you're looking for a fun mystery series to enjoy at the beach, perhaps Tracy Black and her partner Adam Slade of Black Ops Detective Agency can entertain you in Cad to Cadaver and Growler to Grave! 

In the first Black OOps Detective Mystery Cad to Cadaver, life is in the pits for ex-cop Tracy Black, the floundering founder of Black Ops Detective Agency. Tracy is black, like her name, and trying to establish herself as a private investigator in her hometown of Cincinnati after leaving behind a bad relationship and a stressful career as an FBI agent in Atlanta. 

 

Though not romantically interested in womanizing cad Dr. Terrance Jackson, Tracy reluctantly accepts his invitation to attend a medical reception. On high alert from her Terrorism Task Force days, Tracy wrongly accuses a random guest of being a terrorist. Oops! This leads to an embarrassing encounter with handsome white guy Adam Slade, security consultant and ex-navy SEAL. He thinks she’s hot, but Tracy dismisses him as a bumbling gorilla.

 

Eventually, Tracy comes to see Adam as less of a primate and more of man. And when she assists him on a lucrative out-of-state gig involving the Bosnian Mafia, Tracy realizes they make a great team–professionally and romantically!

 

Yet things take a drastic turn when Tracy is accused of Terrance Jackson’s murder. What will it take to get her off the hook? The dauntless duo  encounter one misadventure after another as they put their lives on the line  to clear Tracy’s name and find the killer who turned Dr. Jackson from cad to cadaver!  

Ex-FBI agent Tracy Black and ex-Navy SEAL Adam Slade are back in Growler to Grave, the second in the Black OOps Detective series!  This stand-alone sequel to Cad to Cadaver finds partners Tracy and Adam embroiled in another zany rom/com mystery. Adam, a man of few words, and Tracy, a woman of many, are arguably a match made in Heaven.

 

Catching brewmeister Blake Geist’s cheating spouse isn’t the most desirable job for these audacious private detectives, but money’s tight. Tracy is no nature girl, but that doesn’t stop this daring duo from following trophy wife Denise Geist and her bodybuilding lover Johann Becker deep into the woods in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. Tracy’s scrabble up the crook of an ash tree provides the proof of infidelity. Yay!  Tracy’s fall from the tree onto Adam lands him with a concussion. Oops!

 

After the private eyes are swindled out of payment by cheapskate Blake, the brewmeister’s subsequent murder arouses police suspicion of the Black Ops duo. As bodies pile up, evidence mounts against Adam, whose mysterious disappearances and lack of an alibi trigger Tracy’s trust issues. Would a head injury lead him to commit murder? Tracy must find the killer to prove Adam’s innocence. Will she be able to crack the case? Will Tracy and Adam's relationship survive? Or is their partnership doomed to a "grave" demise?

Do you enjoy mysteries? Thanks for visiting and have a great week! 

Writing Tips to Make Writing Easier

Love to write? Are you just starting out? Maybe you've written several books. No matter where you are in your writing journey, you never stop learning. And Grammarly is a wonderful place to find lots of helpful information. 

Today I've posted a brief snippet of an article by Karen Hertzberg entitled "30 Writing Tips to Make Writing Easier."

Take a look at first seven and click here for the entire article. Happy Writing!

 Set writing goals.

Maybe you want to write a certain number of words per day or upgrade your vocabulary. You can’t reach a goal unless you have one, so write that goal down and work toward it.

Write in the morning.

For many people, writing comes easier right after a good night’s sleep. Grammarly’s research also shows early birds make fewer writing mistakes. (No matter when you write, Grammarly has your back. Try Grammarly to get more writing tips to help keep you on track.)

Write daily.

Getting started on a big writing project can feel intimidating if you’re not used to the act of writing. Practice this skill daily—whether a short sentence or full paragraph—to get accustomed to the mental and physical concept of writing.

Get inspired by research.

Before you begin writing, do some reconnaissance reading. Take notes as you read up on your subject material. Ideas will form as you research.

Always carry a notebook and pen.

Inspiration can hit you at any time. Don’t leave a gripping pitch for a client, poetic sentence, or catchy project name to your memory. Write it down in a dedicated notebook, or create a note file on your smartphone. 

Experiment with writing prompts.

One of the best writing tips for aspiring writers is using a prompt. You can find endless writing prompts online that are suited for all types of genres. Pick one that stimulates your imagination and encourages you to get creative.

Outline.

If you often find yourself rambling on without a clear structure, start with an outline. Follow this simple, no-fail outlining process to organize yourself from the start.

Find all 30 tips here.

Do you use Grammarly? Thanks for visiting and have a great week!